earth because that vnder the crust of the frost it inwardly gathereth its sâ—rength together afresh that afterward it may shew forth iâ—s whole force and power in the Spring Wherefore in cold places it will bee better to plant your vine before the Spring as on the contrarie in hot drie and vnwatered places in Autumne to the end that the raine which shall fall all Winter may supplie the defect of other water and that the roots may the sooner take in the earth and then and at that time principally when nature ministreth most nourishment vnto the rootes My counsell is that in planting vines there be not any holes made but rather little pits of a fadome and a halfe in widenesse and as much in depth and this is to be done in October if you mind to plant your vines in Februarie or else in August if you meane to plant your branches before Winter The principall tooles of a vine-dresser are the mattocke to digge and turne ouer the ground withall the forked picke axe to make pits withall thâ— spade the weede forke to cast vp weedes withal the rake a little saw a great hedging bill a little hedging bill to crop and cut off the wood and to make young branches and an aâ—gar to graâ—t the Vine withall CHAP. VIII Of the plant of the Blacke Vine COncerning the naturall plant of the black Vine it groweth euery where the wilde doth yeeld a sharp and rough wine such as that which groweth of ground newly broken vp but the Vine that is intended to be for Claret wine is planted halfe of blacke and halfe of white Wine and thereupon standeth in neede of another manner of dressing and seat than the common Vine doth in like sort it is harder to order well as requiring a verie great care to be taken about it because the wine which commeth thereof is most pleasant to the eye and of excellent taste albeit that it doe not nourish so much The yong plants of the blacke Vine are the Morillion the Samoyreaâ— the Negrier and the Neraut Besides which for to make Claret Wine it is accustomed to adde the yong white wine plant And for the mingling of them afterward to make a Claret it will in a manner suffice if among three or foure plants or branches of the blacke there be one of the white The best of the blacke plants is the Morillion the wood whereof being cut sendeth forth a redder liquor than any of the other and the best of this sort is the short one being iointed within the bredth of euerie three fingers at the most and growing more or lesse thicke according as the countrie is bearing and nourishing it it beareth a well packt fruit and hath a rounder leafe than any other of that sort The other Morillion hath a long wood iointed with ioints at the end of euerie foure fingers at the least it is thicker and fuller of pith within and in cutting also it is pithie and so more loose the barke except that on the outside is verie redde and the leafe three forked after the manner of a goose foote and like vnto the leafe of the â—igge-tree This second Morillion is otherwise called wilde Pinot it beareth but few cleere grapes and those also small but the wine proueth strong yea better than that of the â—irst Morillion The third Morillion called Beccane hath a blackewood and the fruit is like vnto it in the blossome it maketh a great shew of Wine but when it commeth to ripenes halfe the fruit and sometimes more falleth away The branch is longest iointed of all the rest and groweth more in length and height of wood than any of the other This third kind of Morillion is called Le frane Merillon lampereau it ripeneth before the other Vine plants and yeeldeth good wine and as much as both the other The Samoyreau is likewise found to be of three sorts the best of which branches is short iointed and of a verie hard wood the other draweth verie neere vnto it The third sort is called indented Samoyreau otherwise white Prunelat and that because that his wood is whiter than the other the wine it yeeldeth is of an vnpleasant taste and it beareth but some yeares It hath furthermore this fault that when the fruit should come to be gathered it is for the most part found fallen down and shed vpon the earth The Negrier called redde Prunelat hath a redde bark the wood is long iointed of a thicke and grosse pitch a leafe verie much cut and the grape great cleere verie redde and last ripe Wherefore there needeth to plant but a few of these red plants for the colouring of the other blacke and fastning of them it keepeth and defendeth itselfe from the frost because it hath a high stocke The Neraut called the blacke Bourguignon hath the same nature with the white Bourguignon a hard and a verie blacke vvood a fast and small pith ioints one vpon another an indifferent leafe and altogether round the foot thereof being verie redde the fruit very thicke and close standing one by another as though it were a piled or packed thing it saueth it selfe better from the frost than any other there needeth not so much to be planted of it for it maketh a deep colour in such sort as that they which haue great store of it planted make wine for woollen-diers and â—ell it very deere The small Rochell and Bourdelais of the same nature are scarce to bee found because they are not any great bearers neither yet good for any thing but making of arbours the wood is red as shal be said afterward in inâ—reating of the white vine except because it is â—ound a little redder of a very vermillion colour where it is cut off CHAP. IX Of the plants of the white vine THe best young plant of the white vine is the Frumenteau whose wood draweth towards a yellow colour next vnto it is the Muscadet which beareth a red wood next vnto the Muscadet is the â—ine Pinet of Anjou which hath a wood drawing neere vnto a greene and the fruit yellow as wax There is no young plant that is more apt to beare and indure the frost than the Gouest which beareth a tawnie coloured wood and is very thicke in his stocke hauing a round leafe and yeelding much fruit There is another kind of Gouest which is called sage Gouest so called because of the tast that it maketh in the mouth it is smally in request notwithstanding that it yeeld great store of wine and be no more subiect to the frost than the other Gouest of the same â—ort The fruitfullest of all the white vine plants is that which is called the white Bourguignon or Mourlon or else the Clozier whose ioints are distant some two fingers and a halfe and the fruit hauing a short taile is thicker and closer grown than the Rochelle the leafe is very
that the Sunne may come but sparingly to it to wit euen when the shadow 〈…〉 be hard at the foot if it notwithstanding it delighteth much in places neere 〈◊〉 the Sea in leane and thin grounds where the ayre is warme and temperate of it â—elfe It must be planted in Autumne and in the Spring time of sets of whole plants 〈◊〉 of branches and in March it is planted verie fitly and seasonably when as the â—ap â—putteth vp and commeth to the barbe It may likewise be fowne after the foure 〈◊〉 day of March in a ground that is well manured one foot within the ground 〈◊〉 foure berries together and at the yeares end to remoue it to some other place The Bay-tree feareth the cold aboue all other things and for this cause it must be planted in this countrie in a firme and solide ground as hath beene said to the end that during the times of snow frost and freesing vpon raine the roots may be defended from cold which although the boughes and braunches should be dead by the cold of Winter it would yet continue to bring forth new boughes in the Spring time for the fastnesse and closenesse of the ground will haue let and stayed the ayre from hauing pierced vnto the roots And in caâ—e the ground where you haue planted your Bay-tree should be sandie drie and barren then it will be your part during the time of Winter to spread and cast ashes and straw about the roots of the Bay-tree to preserue the heat of the earth and to withhold the cold from piercing vnto the roots Then for to procure a flourishing and faire Bay-tree two things are necessarie the heat of the ayre and the fastnesse of the ground of which if the one be wanting the Bay-tree will not grow any thing at all or if it grow yet it will be buâ— a small and starued thing as we may easily make triall and proofe in this â—countrie The Bay-tree may be grafted vpon it selfe as also vpon the Dogg-tree the Ash-tree and the Cherrie-tree as we will declare more largely in the third Booke The Myrâ—â—e tree is of two sorts the one is a darke greene the other is a light greene the one beareth a yellow flowre and the other a white but of these the later is the better but euerie sort of Myrâ—le craueth a hot Countrie a light sandie leaâ—â—â— and brittle kind of ground and yet notwithstanding this it groweth well vpon the Sea bankes as also vpon the sides of pooles lakes and fennes It is planted either of young boughs borowed and cut downe for the excessiâ—e ranknesse of them after 〈…〉 foure or fiue yeares old or from the shoots putting forth at the root thereof â—epeâ—â—ting them from the maine root so soone as they be put vp and from after a yeare of their first planting to remoue them or else of seed rubbed and chaâ—ed betwixt your hands and after thrust into an old band or small cord the same buried all along according to that length that it is of in a furrow cast a foot deepe or thereabout and well manured with rotten dung and watering the place The myrtle-tree would be planted in the highest part of the Garden for by his smell it maketh the place most delightsome it may be â—owne also after the manner of the Bay-tree but then it will not grow vp till after a long tâ—me It will grow both high and faire if you make it cleane and scoâ—re it often round about and it will bâ—ing forth much and great fruit if you plant Rose-trees neere vnto it or else plant it neere vnto Oliue-trees in the countrie where they grow for the Myrtle and Oliue trees doe helpe one another greatly It loueth and craueth to be watred with mans vrine but especially with sheepes or when you can get neither of these with warme water wherein it delighteth exceedingly as sometimes appeared by a Myrtle planted neere vnto a bath which to euerie mans sight grew verie pleasantly and beautifully though there were no reckoning or account made thereof Myrtle-berries put in a vessell which is not pitched but well couered doth keepe a long time greene and fresh Some hold it better to put them in hanging vpon their boughs The Myrtle 〈◊〉 nothing so much as cold and taketh delight to be neere vnto pooles brookes and maritime places If you water it oft with warme water it will beare fruit 〈…〉 any kernell The fruit is called Myrtle-berries It must be gathered when it is 〈…〉 great while after the Rose is fallen and shaken It may be grafted vpon another of his owne kind and the white vpon the blacke and the blacke vpon the Apple-treâ— Medlar-tree and Pomegranet-tree After vintage time in the countrie of Prouence where there is a great number of Myrtle-trees the birds feed of the fruit of the Myrtle-tree and thereby become so fat and their flesh so pleasant to eat as that men eat birds so fatted all whole withâ—â—â— pulling out of the garbage insomuch as it is growne into a common prouerbe 〈◊〉 the excrement is better than the flesh The leaues bayes or berries of myrtle-tree by their astringent force and 〈◊〉 doe stay all manner of fluxes whether it be of the bellie or of the termes or principally of the whites the juice and distilled water of Myrtle-tree are singular good to drinke to keepe vp the falling fundament The decoction of the seed of Myrtle-tree doth blacke the haire and keepeth it from falling The berries of the Myrtle-tree may serue in steed of pepper the sauce made therewith worketh the like effect and is singular good to comfort a languishing stomach myrtle berries euen do comfort the heart and cure the beating of the same the ashes of the drie leaues of myrtle-tree burned within a pot of raw earth so throughly as that they become white being afterward washed haue one and the same vertue that Spodium or Pompholâ—â— hath If you cannot make the myrtle-tree to grow in your garden you must content your selfe with the Myrt-tree which craueth the same ground and manner of ordeâ—â—â— that the Myrtle-tree as being a kind of wild Myrtle-tree and which may be 〈…〉 the steed of Myrtle-tree vvhen it cannot be come by as hauing the same or 〈…〉 vertues Butchers-broome is also a kind of wild myrtle which groweth commonly in Forests and Vnderwoods from whence it is better to translate it into your garden 〈◊〉 either to sow or plant it He that is desirous to plant Tamariske in his garden must make choyce of the moist and wettest ground and for want of a sufficient moist ground to water 〈…〉 It is likewise seene that Tamariske doth grow faire and tall by ponds 〈◊〉 and other standing waters It is planted either of roots or sprouts and that from the 〈◊〉 of October till the foure and twentieth of December yea vntill the beginning of Februarie but yet it thriueth best being set of roots there is
the later end of the Moone and then they will beare their fruits as others doe Notwithstanding this limiting and bounding of the time of the Moone is not of such warrantiâ—e but that the tree may be as profitable at all other times of the Moone as well as either then or else in the encrease and new of the Moone Some plant in Ianuarie the plants that haue the shanke or foot of their shoots â—ut by as as also the plant that is set of stones and in a well tempered place but in a warme place men are wont to plant in the moneths of October Nouember and December Trees that haue a grosse thicke root are planted in October Nouember and December but the shoots or little branches are planted in March when they are in sappe Trees that haue a great pith as Figge-trees naturalized Mulberrie-trees Hazell and such like are planted without anie root from after mid September vnto the beginning of Nouember but other trees which you would plant with roots must be planted about the beginning of December or verie shortly after Grosse trees are transplanted from one place into another in the moneth of Nouember and they must be freed from Snailes and lopt and cropt before they be transplanted for so they take the better and put forth their siences verie powerfully and if in taking of them vp or transporting of them it happen that the barke of their roots be broken you must draw the pilled and vncouered place ouer with good dung or earth before that you put it into the ground againe and stirre vp the earth verie well round about where you intend to let them downe againe to the end that their roots may spread and seat themselues to their good contentment without being pinched or straitâ—ned Some doe remoue from after the beginning of Nouember vntill March when the trees begin to enter into their sappe for the sappe once drawing vp aloft doth forbid all remouing of the tree and therefore in such case the sooner the better that is so say if presently after the leaues be fallen which is in the beginning of Winter you goe about it but in waterie places it is good to stay till Ianuarie and Februarie but nothing must be done this way when it raineth or when the earth is wet for it would so harden vpon the drying as that the roots would be oppressed and choaked The young grafts which you haue grafted in the stocke-Nurcerie or elsewhere must be remoued as soone as the grafts shall haue closed vp the cleft of the plant as some are of opinion but yet this is hazarded ware the graft hauing not as yet taken almost anie disposition or good liking of the sappe of the plant which being thus againe remoued it halfe aâ—tonished and put out of the high way of his well-pleasing nourishment and so beginneth to wither when it commeth to take a cast of his new dishes and prouision but and if you stay till the graft haue put forth a faire branch before you remoue the graft you shall shunne the danger that might otherwise ensue You must plant your trees againe as soone as you haue taken them vp if no other weightie matter let you but if you be put off from doing it either because it is brought you from farre or vpon some other occasion you must so soone as they be taken vp couer their roots with the earth from whence they were taken new leaues and slraw that so the raine may not wash them and make them afterward to 〈◊〉 when they become drie againe and to the end also that the ayre and breath 〈◊〉 of the wind or of the Sunne or yet of the Moone may not drie them and 〈◊〉 the moisture which keepeth their roots in good hearr and fit to grow 〈…〉 things being verie hurtfull but the raine the worâ—e of the two Sowre Cherrie-trees cannot abide to be remoued for being transplanted they will hardly put forth anie siences especially if they haue their chiefe and principall root maimed Before you remoue great trees you must loppe off their boughes verie diligeraly at hath beene said but as for little ones you need not crop them to take off 〈◊〉 of their heads neither yet to take anie of their boughes from them if they haue 〈◊〉 too bushie a head If you desire to know a reason wherefore it is thus If you 〈◊〉 the head and toppes vpon trees when they are growne somewhat great and thicke they will still be lending of their sappe vpward not looking to the feeding of the roots for that the ayre attracteth the nourishment of plants as may easily be proued by example when there groweth anie small tree vnder one that is verie great for there the small tree will not thriue so well as if it were abroad in the ayre and 〈◊〉 vnder the shadow and so that which hath his head cut off will take root sooner than and if it were whole and vntouched But if the tree which you remoue exceed not the thicknesse of a great ynch you shall let it remaine whole because young plants take root more easily than those which are old and the reason is openly knowne If the rootes of the trees which you would remoue be much longer than is needfull you may take off the ends thereof in setting them downâ— againe and that so much as may fit best for the hole wherein you meane to set them for so by this meane they will not be stopped vp of the sides of the hole but will amast and draw moisture out of the earth for the nourishment of the tree a great deale more aboundantly When you remoue anie tree you must lay his rootes round about with 〈◊〉 earth and take heed that the weedie earth which you haue digged or cut away 〈…〉 pit whither you meane to remoue it doe not fall in amongst the roots for it would put them in danger to be ouer-heated or else that they growing vp againe might diminish the nourishment of the tree If it happen that the earth which you 〈◊〉 taken out of the pit be full of wormes which might hurt the rootes then 〈◊〉 therewith some lee and ashes When the rootes haue taken foot trample downe the ground as hard as may be or else beat it with a Pauiers beetle watering it afterward if it be drie or else not CHAP. XX. Of the place and soile for Trees in generall THe principall point in growing of Trees is to prouide them of 〈◊〉 ayre and earth because that these doe cheere and season theâ— and are the proper subiect of their nourishment And as concerning the earth that is recommended into vs as to be had in regard and looked vnto more than anie thing else as that it be such as is verie murlie temperate in cold and heat and of a meane and middle sort of moisture and fatnesse for such ground as exceedeth in anie one of these things is not so fit for anie Fruit-tree This
sing she maketh her nest in hils full of snow and ice vpon high trees it is made of the mosse of the wood mingled with earth and fashioned of a round forme with singular cunning in the middest thereof they leaue a hole to the end that it may not fill with water through long and continuall raine which might proue to the drowning of her young ones They breed thrice a yeare as other birds do that is in Aprill May and Iune The Throstle taken in the nest must be kept and fed in like manner as the solitarie Sparrow as well whiles they are young and small as when they become old and great ones Furthermore you must know that the Throstle is a great deale more delicate and fine than the solitarie sparrow and hath tenderer bones So that to preserue and keepe her aliue she must bee kept very neate and cleane See that the Throstle which you would bring vp and keepe be a great one and well feathered for if you chuse her great and that she begin to eate alone and to mout you shall bee the more able to bring her vp and she will proue the better You must note also that there are three â—orts of Throstles those which are best to bring vp for singers are rather the little ones than the others and those which are of a browne and darke coloured feather called in Italian Tordi sassoâ—i On the contrarie those which are nothing worth to sing are much greater and their feathers of a whiter colour called by the Italians Tordelli which in my iudgement are better for the bellie than the eare CHAP. LXIIII. Of the Calander Coridale and Larke COncerning the nature of the Calander it is knowne by the effects for she is hard to tame if she be not taken in the nest she wil be so vexed sometimes as is maruellous and a thing almost incredible for being carried from one place to another and in this vexation she will continue a whole moneth without singing yea there haue some bin seene which did neuer sing againe after except they were brought backe to their accustomed place The Larke notwithstanding that she is disdainefull doth not forsake her singing in such cases aboue two or three daies as doth in like maner the Coirdale These birds make their nests vpon the ground and in meadowes and sometimes amongst the corne Their nests are made of the drie roots of herbs and they breed thrice a yeare first in the beginning of May then in the beginnig of Iune and lastly about mid Iuly Notwithstanding they differ herein sometimes according to the season and time as do all others These three sorts of birds as they are of one and the same nature so they are fed and eate after one manner For their ordinarie meate and feeding shall be no other than that we haue said to be good for the other birds namely the heart of a sheepe beaten and minced very small If they eate not alone you shall feed them very diligently in their nests according as you shall see it needfull Looke to it that they continue not too long in their nests for feare they should become lame But after certaine daies put them in their cage strawed with sand and there leaue them day and night Being accustomed to eate alone you shall giue them heart mingled with the graine called of the Latines Far or else with paste which is made for Nightingales and therewith you shall feed them till they become great ones and stand vpon their feet Afterward you shall scatter some of the aforesaid corne called Far amongst the sand of the cage to the end that the birdes may learne to know of themselues the said corne amongst the sand and to pecke it now and then continuing notwithstanding to feed them and to put into their mouthes of sheepes heart according to your former custome But when these birds begin to mout you may giue them hemp-â—eed spelt and the â—iâ—tings of corne You shall also put into their cages a peece of drie morter or else of the puâ—â—ice stone or of clay whereupon the birds may sharpen and rub their bills which is very apt to grow blunt with pecking and to the end that they mae eate some of it also sometimes for it is a thing that doth them much good and serueth for to purge them CHAP. LXV To make the paste which the Nightingales eate being likewise good for the solitarie Sparrow Miskins Blacke-birds Throstles and many other birds PAste for the said birds whereof we haue made mention before must be made after this manner take the meale of white Cich-pease and boult it diligently with a boulter as is vsed to be done with wheat meale and in such quantitie as you shall see to be needfull For example Let the quantitie of meale bee two poundes with one pound of sweet almonds chosen and husked which afterward you shall â—ake and stampe very well in such sort as is vsed when paste for march-paines is to be made Herewithall you must haue three ounces of fresh butter which butter you shal put into a copper vessel tinned and mixe therwithall the said flower and almonds together After that you haue done this you shal set the said vessell vpon charcole fire that so it may not smell of smoake sâ—iâ—â—ring it diligently whiles it is vpon the sire with a wooden spoone that so it may boâ—le by little and little putting thereto the yelkes of two egs and a little saffron when you perceiue the butter to begin to melt you shall furthermore drop into it of liquid honie so much as shall serue for the incorporating of the paste and bringing of it into cornes still continuing to stir it with a spoone â—or feare the fire should make it burne too When you haue thus done you shall take a Colander made with such holes as will let passe so much at once as the birds for which you make it will eate And when the paste is thus strained through the Colander and the cornes made in such quantitie and qualitie as is requisite for the necessitie of the birdes you shall take the past which could not passe through the said Colander so far forth as that the whole may come to be of a iust consistence And for the keeping of it you must poure honie aboue handling and stirring of it cunningly and so you shall be stored of prouision for sixe moneths CHAP. LXVI The way to know many and sundrie maladies which doe happen vnto birds IT is apparant that the diseases of birds are diuers and the diuersitie thereof causeth diuers effects and diuers signes vvhich lying hidden the disease continueth vnknowne and so there is no administring of any thing in as much as it is not knowne whence it commeth that they are in that case nor what disease it is nor what medicine or remedie is good or conuenient for the curing thereof Wherefore it is necessarily required that there should
to be carried as also in such Counâ—riâ—â— as from whence they haue been wont to haue some brought to the end that by buying before hand or euer that scarcitie pinch he may either by keeping of his store oâ— else by husbanding of it sparingly and thriâ—tily reserue such Corne as he shall know to be likely to proue deere and that not onely for the maintenance of his Familiâ— and his Seed but also to the end he may take his best time and place to sell his ownâ— for his most profit He shall know a fruitfull and ferâ—ile yeare if he see in the Oke apples commonly called Gals a Flie engendred and bred if the Haruest time be beautifull and fâ—ire weather the Spring reasonably hot if there fall good store of Snow in his due timâ— and season if Trees beare but small store of Fruits if Riuers and Flouds doe nourish but small store of Fish if the Broome be fruitfull and abundant in bringing forth of flowers if the Walnâ—t-tree from his beginning to flourish be more laden with flowers for the bearing of fruits than with leaues if the Masticke tree doe bring forth hiâ— frâ—â—t well liking and fed if the wild Onion or Sea-Onion called Squilla cast forth a faire and great flower which withereth not so speedily On the contrarie he shall feare a barren yeare when he shall see that the Nut of the Gall shall bring forth a Spider if any Comet appeare in the Firmament if the Spring and Summer be too moist if the Earth and Aire be full of Spiders Wormeâ— Woodâ—eere and other such like Vermine if the Walnut tree haue moe leaues than Nuts if the Deaw and Frost come in vnseasonable times if Birds in great flockâ—â— doe leaue and forsake the Islands and Woods and betake themselues to the plaine Fields Townes and Villages if the Crow continue not to abide in the Woods â—f there fall out great store of Beanes and likewise of Fruits and Fishes if there happen any great eclipse of the Sunne at such time as the Corne is in flower for the eares thereof will haue no Corne in them Which also falleth 〈◊〉 in like manner when the Seed which is sowne is either a leane a light or a halfe rotâ—n Corne. He shall know whether Corne will be deare or cheape for the present yeare and â—n which of the moneths thereof Let him chuse out at aduenture twelâ—e graines of Corne the first day of Ianuarie let him make cleane the fire-Harth and kindle a fire â—hereupon afterward let him call some boy or girle of his neighbours or of his owne house let him command the partie to put one of these graines of Corne vpoâ—â—he Harth made verie cleane and hot then hee shall marke if the said Graine doe â—eape or lye still if it leape a little then Corne shall be reasonably cheape but if it â—eape verie much it shall be verie cheape if it leape toward the Fire more or lesse Corne shall be more or lesse deare if it lye still and leape not then Corne shall â—tand at one price for this first moneth He shall doe in like manner with the second Graine for the moneth of Februarie and so in order with the rest of the Graines for â—he rest of the moneths as they follow Furthermore for thâ— better preseruation of â—imselfe and his familie from diseases as well contagious as others caused of distemâ—erature and ill disposition of the Aire it will be good that he should haue some foreâ—â—ght to discerne what diseases in likelyhood may ensue But the most certaine and â—â—re token is if at the end of the Spring or during the Summer it raine ordinarily â—nd that in great aboundâ—nce and accompanied with great and vehement heat withâ—â—t any Wind at all or if the Southerne Wind blow or that as yet there haue not â—â—llen any Raine at all if the Aire be full of Fogges and Mists if the Sunne endure â—ny Eclipse or if there be seene in the Aire any Comets or fierie flames if the Trees doe seeme to flame and burne if that the time of Haruest and Winter be verie foggie and yet notwithstanding rainie if Bread set abroad in the open Aire doe in the night time draw moisture vnto it and become mouldie if Dogs run mad if that it be found that Wolues run into some Townes being mad if Birds forsake their nestâ— egges and young ones if there be a great death of Sheepe if that Fennes be full of Frogs if Walls be full of Sowes and such other like Vermine if vpon the way a man cannot but meet with Wormes Lisards Serpents and Moules crept out of their holes and lurking places if Birds fall dead out of the Aire if in the Nut of a Gall be found a Spider if young and old folke be troubled with the Pocks and Measels if Women with child be brought in bed before their time if in Summer after raine there be to be seene in the Fennes great store of Frogs hauing pale or ash-coloured backes and yellow bellies if Grounds planted with Roses or with Violets do bring forth and yeeld flowers in the beginning of Autumne He shall prognosticate great death of Cattell if he see that the leaues of the Elme tree and Peach tree doe fall before their time And I would that all men vnderstood that I haue set downe these things without any mind to derogate from the good and Almightie prouidence of God who bindeth not himselfe to the Orders and Lawes whereunto he hath bound and tied Nature but altereth the same euen according to his owne good will and pleasure as being Creator of all things and as vnto whom all honour appertaineth CHAP. IX That the Farmer must haue the knowledge of the Motions as well of the Moone as of the Sunne and of the power and operâ—tions of them both in matters of Husbandrie NOtwithstanding that the consideration and obseruation of the Motions Faâ—ulties and Effects of the Starres and chiefely of the two great and admirable Fires of the whole World called of God by the mouth oâ— Moyses Lights that is to say the Sunne and the Moone doth appâ—rtaâ—â—â— râ—ther vnto some excellent Astrologian than to a simple Husbandman notwithstanding for as much as thâ— greatest part of matters of Husbandrie as Beasts Plants Trees and Hearbes doe take their generation noâ—rishment growth and perfect consummation by the liuely inspiration action casting forth of Beames and wonderfull mouings of these two Organes and principall Instruments of all the World it is very expedient that the Farmeâ— and Gouernor of a Husbandrie should haue that knowledge gotten by long experience which teacheth their vertues and powers in matters of Husbandrie to the end he may handle manage and order the same according to the motions of those two great Gouerners So then to speake of the Moone in the first place which by reason of being neerest vnto vs of all the rest of the Planets and coelestiall
not to be come by but out of some farre Countrey For though the feeding be good and singular for Oxen as in Flanders and elsewhere yet it falleth out so that if they can haue Horse to doe their worke they doe like better thereof than of the Oxe Euen as in Prouence Languedoe and Auuergnac men doe vse the labour of their Mules and their young Colts rather than of Oxen and Kine because they effect not or dispatch their worke 〈◊〉 well or yet so speedily howsoeuer yet the labour of the Oxe is maruellous good auaileable and profitable in strong grounds for they draw the Ploughes deepe into the earth and turne ouer great furrowes as may be seene in Italie where there are great Oxen long and broad breasted in Gascoigne Bourbon Poitou Aniou and Mayne Againe men of ancient time vsed no other beast but Oxen because that Oxen are more sparing for the profit of the Farmer for they are contented to feed vpon pasture without anie other food or prouender besides the great profit and good prouision comming of them for being either shoulder-shot or bruised in aniâ— part or growne impotent and vnable to worke by reason of old age they are 〈◊〉 either for to sell or to kill and salt for his vse profits and commodities which the other kind of Cattell I meane the Horse doe not affoord The Oxe-house must be built of stone paued with grauell or sandie ground somewhat descending and sloping that so the moisture may not stand It must also stand vpon the South that so it may be the more drie and lesse subiect vnto cold and frostie winds it shall be nine foot wide and onely of such height as that the Oxe may stand vpright and the Oxe-keeper may haue space ynough to goe round about them to see and serue them with fodder as also to the end that seeing Oxen will be striking one another with their hornes the weaker may haue space to withdraw himselfe The Rackes must be so high as that the Oxen cannot easily reach them The charge of him that is to keepe the Oxen is to be gentle and louing vnto the Oxen dressing and giuing them their meat prouiding them good litter either of straw or some other thing to rub them euerie euening before they lye downe and in the morning to eurrie them and wipe them cleane gently washing their tayles oft with warme water To keepe their house cleane and not to let Hennes or Swine come therein for feathers will kill Oxen and the dung of a diseased Swine engendreth the Murraine or Plague To giue fresh straw vnto these Cattell and to cast to them in Summer the greene sprouts and tender â—hoots of the arbors of Vines or others and in Winter of Beane stalkes and grasse euening and morning Let him be skilfull to discerne when Plough Oxen haue labored much or little that he may accordingly giue them a proportionable quantitie of meat and also such as shall be necessarie he may not let them take paine or labour in verie hot or verie cold weather neither yet when it is verie moist he may not let them drinke quickly after their trauell but if they 〈◊〉 heated so soone as they be come home hee shall cast a little wine into their throaâ— and shall not tie them to their Manger vntill such time as their wearinesse be ouerpast When there commeth together anie companie of Festiuall daies and rest 〈◊〉 shall grease their hornes and vnder the pasterne together with the hoofe or else â—e shall put vnder an Onion rosted verie soft betwixt two coales tying it thereto with a cloth Let him oftentimes make cleane and refresh their pasternes and not suffer them to cleaue or rend and to that end let him euerie yeare cause to be repaired the pauement of his Oxe-house which will serue also to keepe away beasts and 〈◊〉 which are wont to annoy Oxen. Let him remoue them one farre ynough from another least they should strike one another When they labour not let him water then twice a day in Summer and once in Winter and that in cleare cleane and coole water For as hath beene said heretofore the Oxe seeketh after the water that is clear and most bright as the Horse after that which is troubled Let him carefully looke vpon their comming from field whether anie of them haue got anie thorne in his foot if they be sweatie if the Collar or the Yoke haue caused them anie hurt abouâ— their head or if they be chafed about the neck if they haue beene much prickt with the Goad or with the Gadâ—â—ie or Horneâ— and let him accordingly apply something for the healing of them The gelded Oxe is better meat better marchandise and better for labour than thâ— Bull whose flesh is more hard and tough like a Hide and more troublesome to driue wherefore of a hundred Calues that the Oxe-keeper may haue he shall not â—eepe aboue two to bull the Kine the rest he shall geld all of them about when they â—re two yeares old for after this time he cannot doe it commodiously It would be â—one in Autumne and in the later end of the Moone and the ashes of Vine branâ—hes mixt with Lytharge must be applied to the wound and three daies after pitch â—elted and mixt with the said ashes you must not let him drinke the day wherein â—e is gelded and he must for the same day also eat but a little meat The manner to geld him is to take with two streight rules of wood as it were with quitches or pinâ—ers the strings of his stones then afterward to open the purse and cut out his stones â—n such sort as that he leaue the vpper end thereof whereto the said strings are fastned for by this meanes the calfe is not so much subject to effusion of bloud neither yet will it be altogether spoyled of courage not hauing all his pride taken away but some little left behind and reserued which may still expresse his first and naturall forme Hauing gelded him you must feed him well that he may be fit for labour and feed him according to the seasons and times cheering and cherishing him by sometimes giuing him a little salt sometime robbing his head with your whole hand strâ—aking his backe and rubbing the rest with louing and gentle speeches notwithstanding so long as he is in the house let his hornes be tied and he close made fast to the cratch Couple him with another of the same greatnesse grosenesse age and strength tie them the one by the other lead them into the fields tied together to the end they may one of them loue another let them oftentimes see the Oxen that draw the plow or which till the ground or doe any other manner of worke and to the end they may loose their naturall wildnesse lead them to heare the noise of mills of men of forges and other things which make great rumbling neere vnto the time when
Lâ—pines 〈◊〉 good Honie and of the whole strayned make him take a Pine eight 〈◊〉 â—â—gether If he be costiuene he may be helped by drinke or clyster the drinke shall be 〈◊〉 giue him ordinarily of the powder of vvild Rue with the seed thereof 〈…〉 good red wine or else take the root of yellow Flower-de-luce with Annisseed◠〈◊〉 Opopaâ—ax and of all these beaten together verie small you shall make 〈…〉 or draughts vvith three ounces of good Red vvine and as much Oyle oliue and those on three seuerall dayes In the clyster you shall put the juice of pale coloured Flower-de-luce in three pound of the decoction of Mallows and Perrie and into the vvhole you shall put of Sall-nitrum and the dung of Pigeons of each an ounce of Oyle-de-bayes and Rue of each three ounces After the clyster giuen he must be vvalked a great vvhile and verie softly Some Farriers or Horse-leaches haue in this disease made triall of Hares dung with nine spoonefulls of Honie and fiue grains of Pepper to make a drinke to take with the broth of Cich Pease or Red Coleworts The Horse oftentimes hauing eaten too much Barley or other prouender that is hurtfull is troubled vvith the swelling of his flankes and the rest of his bodie to take the same away you must make a decoction of Mallowes Pellitorie Beares 〈◊〉 Mercurie and other soluble hearbes putting thereto Bran Salt Honie and Oyle and hauing vvarmed this decoction he shall haue a clyster giuen him with a clysterpipe hauing the shanke thereof proportionably great and long this being well accomplished annoint his bellie with Oyle and after cause it to be rubbed vvith a round staffe by two men beginning before and so going backward stopping vp his fundament after this get vpon him and vvalke him verie softly and a long time vntill that he haue voided not onely this clyster but vvithall some part of the dung which he had in his bodie and he will be well by and by after For bursting or rupture some are of opinion that there is nothing so soueraigne as to take seuen ounces of the ashes of the vvood of vine braunches or of Elme with three ounces of Oyle oliue Scallions brayed seuen in number Honie three ounces fresh Butter and Goats Seweâ— of each an ounce the juice of Plantaine three ounces vvith old white vvine or the broth of Cych Pease this will serue for thrice to be taken three seuerall daies together To keepe your great Horses that they may not be molested and troubled in great heat vvith the stinging of Flies you must rub their haire vvith the juice of leaues of gourdes For the farcie of the legges you must shauâ—â— the place and after annoint it with the Oyle of Iuniper for the space of foure daies euening and morning and let not the horse goe forth to water all the whiles that his haire is not growne againe or else let him haue a strake vvith an yron long-waies and ouerthwhart otherwise for the farcie of a horse how hard to cure so euer it be you must take the roots of common cotton thistle which is the broad and white leaued thistle and make him eat them in shiues with his oats it will heale him without all faile in lesse than fifteene daies or three weekes if it be continually giuen him to eat and the remedie is verie easie seeing the horse will willingly eat it For clefts which happen betwixt the joynt of the legge and the hoofe shaue away the haire wash the place with vvine annoint it vvith an ointment made of Soot Vâ—â—degrease and Honie pouned and boyled together mingling therewith in the end some Lime if the chaps be verie deepe in â—â—are them For the scabbe you must let him bloud in conuenient places according to that place vvhere the disease is for a conuenient purge it vvill be good to vse of the powder of the root of vvild Cucumber mingled vvith Sal-nitrum and giuen in a â—oâ—ne vvith vvhite vvine the medicine oftentimes giuen doth purge him of euill humours for an ourward remedie take quicke Brimstone fat Pitch Clay of Iudea called Asphaltuâ— mingle all together and dissolue it in new Butter salted and with this oyntment you shall rub him all ouer his bodie in the greatest heat of the Sunne and by many persons and a long time If you loue not rather to take of vinegar a quarter of a pinâ—e of Perrosin foure ounces Pitch or Gum of the Cedar-tree foure ounces and mixe them all vvell together in an oynâ—ment vvith mans vrine and vvarme vvater putting thereto of sweet Seame and old Oyle of each three ounâ—â—â— make a liniment or cerote if it like you not better to vvash him all ouer 〈◊〉 else to foment him vvith vrine and warme vvater and after to applâ—e your linâ—ment vpon the places so washed The hearbe called Rose-baie or Oleander boyled in Oyle I meane the leaues onely is an exquisite remedie for this disease 〈◊〉 thereto fat pitch vinegar and waxe and remember alwaies in rubbing and annointings to rubbe the beast against the haire It is also a soueraigne remedie to 〈◊〉 him first in the sâ—abbed place vntill it bleed and after to wash it with Lee made with one part of Lyme two of Beane-meale and three of the ashes of Ash-tree all these not boyled but steeped onely in the Lee. After the washing you must annoint the place with an oyntment made of quick-siluer hellebor brimstone alum colts-foot 〈◊〉 Swines-grease When the horse complaineth himselfe and his flankes be swolne as also the reâ—â— of his bodie by hauing eaten some bad Hay or Prouender you shall make him this drinke take the thin skinnes that are in the stomach of three Hens and drie theâ— vvell in an ouen afterward powder them vvith halfe an ounce of pepper and fouâ—â— spoonefulls of Honie and an ounce of the powder of fine Frankencense make him take this medicine vvith a pint of vvarme vvine and to the end that it may loosen his bellie giue him at the fundament by a clyster sufficient great and long a clyster of the decoction of Mallowes Mercurie Pellitorie and other loosening hearbes putting thereto Bran Salt Honie and Oyle Against the colicke take Asarum bacchar the leaues and roots of Parsley and Fennell of each one ounce blacke Pepper two ounces Horehound an ounce Soothernwood halfe an ounce fine Honie a pottle boile it well and scum it altogether and thereof make trochiskes of the bignesse of Filberts and with a quarter of a pint of good wine you shall make the horse to take it in manner of a drinke and the day that the colicke doth paine him you shall bruise three or foure spoonefulls of Fennel-seed and cause him to drinke it downe roundly with wine and then count him well to cause him to sweat For the swelling of the cods or stones make as it were a pap of strong vinegar fullers day and salt to
notwithstanding the flowers of Roses and Capers must be gathered to be kept while they be 〈◊〉 likewise the leaues and whole hearbes are gathered when they are growne to the full fruits as Melons Cucumbers Citruls and Gourds when they turne yellow and are growne to their perfection If they be purposed to be made serue for seed then they must be let alone longer and afterward kept in conuenient place 〈◊〉 be time to sow them and they must be gathered in a bright weather and in the â—â—crease of the Moone Seeds are gathered when the hearbe is all layd and drie 〈◊〉 it must generally be obserued in all manner of gathering as well of hearbes 〈◊〉 roots as of fruits and seeds that it be done in a faire and cleare weather and in the â—â—crase of the Moone Such hearbes as are to be kept must first be made verie cleane and dried 〈◊〉 shadow which is the best meanes to keepe them the strongest in their vertues 〈◊〉 qualities or else in the Sunne and after to put them vp in bagges of Leather vvollen stuffe nor in vvoodden boxes that so they may not loose their 〈…〉 see it put in practise by sine hearbes which are kept to be vsed in Winter 〈◊〉 me thinkes that the Apothecaries faile much in their doings which hang their phâ—sicke hearbes in the roofe of their house for by this meanes they doe not onely 〈◊〉 their force but become laden with dust cobwebs the dung of flies and a thousand â—â—ther filthie things Flowers must not be dried in the Sunne not in the shadow that is made by 〈◊〉 South-Sunne nor yet in any high roome because of their tendernesse and 〈◊〉 which would cause their force to vanish away either in the burning heat of 〈◊〉 Sunne or in the more moderne heat of the verie ayre If it be not the Prouenâ—e 〈◊〉 which that it may be kept long requireth to be dried in an high place open to 〈◊〉 South-Sunne where the beames of the Sunne doe enter but touch not the 〈◊〉 The best way to drie flowers will be in a temperate place and to turne them 〈…〉 the end that they may not corrupt hauing also this continuall care that they 〈◊〉 neither loose their colour nor their smell And when they are dried they must 〈◊〉 put into an earthen vessell Seeds must be kept in bagges or vessells of earth which haue narrow moutheâ— or in boxes or else in bottles of the rindes of gouâ—ds well stopt and set in 〈◊〉 drie places and where there is no water shed for seeds doe mightily spoyle 〈◊〉 moisture The seeds of Chibols Onions and Leekes as also of Poppie are kept 〈◊〉 their rindes or heads For to keepe Roots you must obserue two waies for either they are to be 〈◊〉 new and as they are yet greene as Nauets Turneps Carets and such like or 〈◊〉 they are to be kept drie For to keepe them new you must lay them vpon sand 〈◊〉 grauell verie thin in some place vnder the earth and a little couered or else to 〈◊〉 them vnder the earth in the garden as we see it done in Turneps and Nauets to 〈◊〉 them the greatest part of Winter To keepe roots drie after they be gathered 〈◊〉 must wash them diligently with cleare water and after take from them all the 〈◊〉 â—ibres or hairie threeds that hang about them and then to drie them either in 〈◊〉 shadow of the Sunne-rising if they be but small and thin as are the roots of 〈◊〉 Succorie Parsley Sperage and such like or in the South-Sunne if they be 〈◊〉 and thicke at those of Daffodils Gentian Sowbread Water-lilly Brionie and such like After that they are dried and thus prepared you must hang them in some 〈◊〉 and vpper roome open vpon the Sun when it is in the South or else vpon the 〈◊〉 quarter and in which notwithstanding neither the smoake nor dust nor 〈◊〉 beames may any thing hurt them notwithstanding that the counsell of 〈◊〉 the prince of Physitians is that hearbes flowers and roots as well greene as 〈◊〉 should not be put to keepe in any place where the wind should come but rather 〈◊〉 vp in vessells or some other such like meanes of keeping of them to the end that they should not loose their force which indeed they might most easily loose being 〈◊〉 open and subiect to the wind CHAP. XI Pâ—t-hearbes and particularly of Coleworts FIrst of all we are to speake of Coleworts both because they are most common and also most aboundant of all other sorts of hearbs all kinds of Coleworts doe loue a cleane ground fat and well tilled not consisting of clay or sand And although they grow indifferently in any ayre but â—pecially in a temperate yet they become greater and more massie sound and safe 〈◊〉 vermine in cold places as are those in Germanie than in hot places and for 〈◊〉 cause they delight a great deale more in the tops of hills than in plaine grounds 〈◊〉 yet in those plaine grounds more in the raised parts of borders than in the flat 〈◊〉 middle parts thereof and they be more pleasant more wholesome for the 〈◊〉 and better in Autumne Spring-time and during great frosts than they be in â—ommer They craue much dung and that especially which is of Asses as being the 〈◊〉 of all for other men and to be raked in couered ouer with good earth not to 〈◊〉 watered in any case notwithstanding that water doth make them looke faire and â—â—ourishing but then not so sweet to the tast nor so wholesome for the stomach When they haue got sixe leaues vpon their stalkes you must remoue them but let it 〈◊〉 in a mild and calme time whether Winter or Sommer And to speake particuâ—arly the common Coleworts called long or greene Coleworts must be sowen in 〈◊〉 August or September if you desire to haue the leaues in Lent and in Winter Some plant them in October and remoue them in December to haue the leaues in Winter and the seed in Iune and Iulie and that to make them the more tuffed â—hough there may be as much accomplished that way at other times of the yeare â—ut not so commodiously And looke well to it that your seed be not too old for if it be three yeares old it will bring forth Radishes And that is the cause why some say Sow Coleworts and â—here will grow vp Radishes or Nauets notwithstanding it continueth sixe yeares 〈◊〉 his nature if it be well kept Cabage-colewort which are called white or apple Coleworts are sowen vpon 〈◊〉 and remoued to stand a foot one from another well couered at the root with a 〈◊〉 and enriched earth when they begin to rise vp into a great stemme and loue â—â—e cold ayre for in a hot aire they cannot liue and you must couer them with straw 〈◊〉 make them cabage the better and become the whiter The curled and Romane Coleworts being more tender
layed in a well 〈◊〉 soyle the leaues downeward into the ground and the root vpward toward the 〈◊〉 of the earth and aboue it there must be made something to couer it in manner of 〈◊〉 vnder vvhich there must straw be cast to keepe it from frost and bad winds 〈◊〉 like is done with Endiue and it is found white when it is pulled vp againe and 〈◊〉 verie delicate in eating Some for the same end vvhen Succorie hath put forth 〈◊〉 leaues tye them all together with a verie small threed and after couer them with 〈◊〉 of earth to the end that it may continually draw by his root nourishment out 〈◊〉 the earth and by this meanes it becommeth white and tender and looseth a great 〈◊〉 of his bitternesse Euerie man knoweth that the decoction of Succorie drunke in manner of an 〈◊〉 is good for them which haue the jaundise or heat of the liuer The juice of 〈◊〉 drunke euerie second day fasting stayeth the spitting of bloud Succorie 〈◊〉 and put vnder the lest dugge doth heale the heart-ache Some say that the 〈◊〉 of vvild Succorie often drunke maketh the visages and countenances of 〈◊〉 more cleare and pleasant CHAP. XIIII Of Artichokes THe Artichoke plant is a diuers thing from Endâ—ue and Succorie for 〈◊〉 for Artichokes to plant them in Autumnâ— which is about the moneth of October they are so fruitfull and forward to thriue as that you need not to take any more but the great leaues with their branches of 〈◊〉 as bring forth the fairest and greatest fruit and in like manner of the thicke 〈◊〉 in the middest seruing for no manner of vse after that the heads of them be 〈◊〉 and to plant them againe Also some haue otherwise vsed to cast downe 〈◊〉 said stalkes and burie them a foot deepe in good manured ground the leaues at 〈◊〉 top bound at the end with a little straw and the stalke layed downe and well 〈◊〉 and they keepe them thus watering them now and then if the time be not 〈◊〉 ynough of it selfe for to make shootes and young sets of in Winter or at other 〈◊〉 and some there be that pricke the heads in a well manured earth and being 〈◊〉 planted doe couer them in Winter with the chaffe or dust of Line or Hempe 〈◊〉 keepe them from the frost and that in the yeare following they may bring forth 〈◊〉 fruit Moreouer the Artichoke is sowen in the increase of the Moone of March 〈◊〉 beds well dunged and fatted but you must not looke to haue any whole and 〈◊〉 fruit of them vntill the next yeare after And if you would haue the seed to 〈◊〉 make little small pits vpon your bed a good foot one from another and halfe 〈◊〉 foot deepe and as much broad and these fill with old dung that is verie small and â—lacke earth that is verie fine mixt together and aboue the same placâ— prick or thrust in the seed of your Artichoke two inches within the earth the small end 〈◊〉 and putting fiue or sixe seeds in one pit together and making many pits neere 〈◊〉 in a round compasse that so they may make a faire knot and plant and 〈◊〉 you may couer it againe easily without much stamping or treading for it And 〈◊〉 soone as the Artichoke hath leaues bigge ynough it must be watered and 〈…〉 continued in such places as are verie drie that so it may bring forth a 〈◊〉 and great fruit Aboue all things care must be had that the small end be not 〈◊〉 contrarie put downeward for then it would bring forth writhen weake small 〈◊〉 hard Artichokes You must also make choice of the fairest and greatest â—eed 〈◊〉 may be found and that the small pits be made a good fathome the one from the 〈◊〉 that so one plant may not hinder another It is true that it is better to 〈…〉 slips and branches than the seed because there commeth fruit the sooner of the 〈◊〉 than of the other and because that in so planting of them you may be occupied 〈◊〉 well imployed euerie moneth and so reape your fruit in diuers seasons of the 〈◊〉 according as the earth is fat or leane hot or cold moist or drie or as the 〈◊〉 hardly agreeing with and vnfit for this plant And in anie case plant of those 〈◊〉 beare the fairest fruit according as there are diuers sorts in respect of their 〈◊〉 length roundnesse diuers colours and tast some also being prickly and 〈◊〉 without pricks For of Artichokes there be diuers kinds as the round and the 〈◊〉 the red and the greene the round which is greene is a good Artichoke so 〈…〉 red although it be long yet the soale is but thinne neither is the leafe verie 〈◊〉 onely it is exceeding pleasant in tast the greene which is long is of 〈◊〉 sorts the worst for it neither beareth good soale nor good leafe but is a loose 〈◊〉 leaued Artichoke euer wallowish and vnpleasant but the round large 〈◊〉 whose tops of leaues are red being hard firme and as it were all of one piece is of 〈◊〉 other the best Artichoke hath the deepest soale the thickest leafe and is the 〈◊〉 to grow in anie soyle whatsoeuer And therefore I would with euerie man as 〈◊〉 as he can to make choice of these before anie other kind If you would that the Artichoke should grow without prickes you must 〈◊〉 against a stone and breake the end of the seed which is sharpe or else put the 〈◊〉 after the manner of a graft in the â—oot of a Lettuce which hath no rinde and 〈…〉 small pieces in such sort as that euerie piece may be grafted with a seed and so 〈◊〉 You shall haue Artichokes of good tast if you let the seed steepe three 〈◊〉 before you plant it in the iuice of Roses or Lillies or oyle of Bay or of 〈◊〉 or some other sweet and fragrant iuice and then afterward drie it â—nd so plant 〈◊〉 it Although that as concerning the former oyles there be some which are of a 〈◊〉 opinion and doe thinke that the oyle doth spoyle the seed You shall 〈◊〉 Artichoke of the smell of the Bay tree if you cleaâ—e or make a hole in a Bay 〈◊〉 and putting therein the seed of an Artichoke doe set it so Artichokes will be 〈◊〉 in tast if before you set the seed you steepe them in milke which must be 〈◊〉 and changed twice or thrice before that it sowre or in honey and then 〈◊〉 drie and set them Two sorts of beasts doe annoy the roots of Artichokes Mice and Moâ—les 〈◊〉 dung of Swine or the ashes of the Fig-tree spread about the roots of the 〈◊〉 doe chase away Mice and the like will fall out if you wrap their roots aboâ—◠〈◊〉 wooll Some to driue away Rats that destroy the roots of Artichokes vnder the 〈◊〉 pricke downe halfe a foot deepe in the earth certaine stickes of Elder tree 〈◊〉 some foure ynches
from the other the smell of which Elder is so odious 〈…〉 beasts that they haue no desire to come neere it either vnder or aboue the 〈◊〉 so long as it is greene and therefore when these first stickes shall be drie you 〈◊〉 renew them Othersome put Thornes that are verie sharpe and pricking or 〈…〉 of Chesnuts vnder the earth round about the plants of the Artichokes 〈…〉 one neere vnto another to the end that the Rats comming neere vnto the 〈◊〉 may presently be driuen backe againe Others cause Beanes to be boyled 〈…〉 poysoned water and doe put them in the holes of this wicked cattell for they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sent thereof they run thither presently As concerning Moules we will speake of 〈◊〉 manner of killing them hereafter The root of Artichoke sodden in Wine and drunke is soueraigne against the difâ—â—cultie of making water for the stinking and strong smell of the arme-pits and of 〈◊〉 vrine also for the hot and scalding fretting of ones vrine whether it come of the 〈◊〉 or of some other cause and so also for the dropsie the pulpe boyled in flesh 〈◊〉 and eaten with Salt Pepper and Galanga made in powder helpeth the weakâ—sse of the generatiue parts The Italians eat them in the morning raw with bread 〈◊〉 salt whiles they be yet young and tender CHAP. XV. Of Sorrell and Burnet SOrrel and Burnet notwithstanding that they grow vntild in great aboundance yet they may be sowen in fine ground and well manured in the Spring time especially the Sorrell for as for Burnet it groweth likewise and as well in drie grounds nothing tilled or stirred both of them 〈◊〉 planted in gardens must from the beginning be well watered and he that deâ—reth to gather the seed must take them vp and plant them againe suffering them to â—row to their perfection and then to drie and wither They feare not cold or frost â—either yet aboundance of water but they looke especially the Sorrell that they 〈◊〉 become the fairer to be cut three or foure times a yeare All the sorts of Sorrell as well those of the field as those of the garden haue this â—ertue that being boyled with flesh how old and hard soeuer it be yet they make it â—nder and loose the bodie The leaues of Sorrell rosted in hot ashes haue a singular force to resolue or to cause 〈◊〉 Apostumate the swellings of the eyes or as some Surgeons vse if you take the 〈◊〉 of Sorrell and lap them vp close in a Burre-docke leafe then lay it in the hot 〈◊〉 and rost it as you would rost a Warde then open it and applie it as hot 〈◊〉 the patient is able to endure it to any impostumation or byle whatsoeuer about 〈◊〉 part of a mans bodie it will not onely in short space ripen and breake it but also â—raw and heale it verie sufficiently it is also being boyled in Posset-ale a verie â—â—od cooler of the bloud and a great comferter against inflamations which come by â—â—urning Feauers A Cataplasme made of the leaues of Sorrell with twice as much 〈◊〉 Swines-grease all beaten and mingled together and afterward put in the leafe of 〈◊〉 Colewort vnder the hot ashes is soueraigne against cold Apostumes The seed of â—orrel powdred and drunke with water or wine doth asswage the paine of the blouâ—ie flux Sorrell steept in vinegar and eaten in the morning fasting is a preseruatiue â—gainst the plague as also the Syrope or Iuleb made with the juice thereof The â—aues of Sorrell well stamped and applied vnto the wrest doth tame the fiercenesse 〈◊〉 the ague Burnet of the garden being an herbe that some vse to put in their salades whereof 〈◊〉 haue here spoken and which is also the same which the Latinists call Sanguisorâ—â— taken in drinke is good to restraine the monethly termes of women and all other 〈◊〉 of the belly but especially such as are of bloud it is good also to dry vp wounds â—nd vlâ—ers if it be applied vnto them in forme of a Cataplasme Some doe much â—teeme it in the Plague time and some say that the often vse of Burnet especially 〈◊〉 juice thereof is a verie soueraigne preseruatiue against dangerous diseases beâ—â—use it hath a propertie verie much strengthening the Liuer the Heart and the Spiâ—â—â—ts The leaues of Burnet put into the wine make it more pleasant more strong and â—omewhat Aromaticall and of the taste of Millions they are verie good to be put in sallades made with Oyle Salt and Vinegar according as we see them vsed 〈◊〉 day CHAP. XVI Of Harts-horne Trickmadame and Pearcestone AS for Harts-horne and Trickmadame they haue no need of any 〈…〉 or planting for both of them will come in any ground that 〈◊〉 would haue them whether it be husbanded or not True it is that if 〈◊〉 would haue Harts-horne flourish and faire liking you must cut it oft 〈◊〉 it along vpon some roller or cause it to go vpon foot by it selfe for it delighteth to 〈◊〉 so intreated and vtterly refusing to grow otherwise than against the ground 〈◊〉 madame doth nothing feare the cold and doth grow principally vpon the old 〈◊〉 of vines in a stonie and grauelly earth These are put in Summer-sallades 〈◊〉 neither of theâ—â— haue either tast or smell fit for the same The Harts-horne is goodâ— stay the flux of the bellie Trickmadame stamped with Lettuce and applied vnto the pulses doth delay 〈◊〉 heat of an ague The distilled water thereof being often times drunken doth 〈◊〉 roughly heale burning and tertian agues Pearcestone is sowen in a drie and sandie soile and craueth to be much 〈◊〉 euen from the beginning he that desireth the seed must let the hearbe grow to 〈◊〉 perfection and afterward to drie the seed as corne is dried It may be preserued in salt and vinegar after the manner of purcelane and then 〈◊〉 soueraigne for the difficultie of vrine for the jaundise and to breake the stone to proâ—â—uoke vvomens termes and to stirre vp ones appetite if it be vsed in the beginning 〈◊〉 meat For want of such as is pickled in vinegar you may make the decoction of 〈◊〉 leaues roots and seeds in Wine for to vse in the same disease CHAP. XVII Of Marigolds MArigolds haue not need of any great ordering for they grow in 〈◊〉 fields and in any ground that a man will neither doe they 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 sowen euerie yeare for being once sowen they afterward grow of theâ— selues and beare flowers in the Calends of euery moneth of the yere 〈◊〉 in Sommer as in Winter for which cause the Italians call them the flower of all 〈◊〉 moneths To be short the place where they haue once beene sowen can hardly 〈◊〉 of them If they be neuer to little husbanded and cut many times they will beare 〈◊〉 faire â—lowers and verie great but yet euer more in Autumne than in the Spring The juice of the
due time when as they be ripe The vse of Gourds is not so dangerous as those of Cucumbers so that their waterishnesâ—e be tempered with things meet and sit for the same as with saffron pepper and other such aromaticall powders and for the dish those which are long and white are better and to be preferred before either of the other two sorts Physitians are of opinion that there is nothing better to asswage the heat of hot burning agues to take away the thirst and to loosen the bellie then to vse oftentimes the strayned juice of Gourds stewed without liquor in a new earthen pot set in an ouen There is nothing better for the drinesse of the tongue for sharpe and burning humours and for leaâ—e agueish persons than the vse of the pulpe of Gourds or the Syrope made of their juice CHAP. XXXIX Of Melons and Pompions MElons and Pompions doe not so easily grow in this Countrey because they delight in a Countrey and Ayre that is hot but by force of labour and cunning skill they are drawne vnto it by ordering their beds and remouing of them where they may be shielded from the Cold and receâ—â—e the benefit of the South Sunne and reflexe of the heat of the same from some wall And againe it is a speciall furtherance and helping of them forward to fore-cast that they may grow in such seasons as are verie hot for now and then Summer falleth out 〈◊〉 variable and mixt with cold or drought or moisture as that thereupon they be 〈◊〉 ripe till Autumne and towards the time of Vintage Wherefore it standeth you vpon to hasten them and helpe them forward with dung and with the heat of their beds though this course in the meane time stand not so well with the health of the parties that shall eat them or with the goodnesse and pleasant smell of the Pempions and thereupon it commeth that there are moe grounds planted with Cresses than with Melons amongst vs. Wherefore it were better to reserue for such vse quarter of ground or thereabouts in some place of your Garden where the South Sunne lyeth and is beaten backe by some wall the same also keeping away the North wind hauing no shadow either of Trees or of anie other thing to keepâ— backe the Sunne from it but being withall a good fat and substantiall ground well weeded well tilled and the greene swarth well broken and withall made verie leâ—ell and euen And this your quarter would be againe diuided into foure small quarters and to set your Melon seeds which you intend to plant that yeare but in one of thâ— said little quarters letting the other three râ—st and so succâ—ssiuely in succeeding yeares to low the said little quarters one after another for then the Melons wiâ— grow in their naturall goodnesse and perfection it being their nature to craue a new rested and well manured ground And if it be requisite to helpe such ground wiâ—â— some sweetnesse you must burne vpon it in Winter some Straw or drie Dung 〈◊〉 some Elder tree amongst other wood and mixe the ashes with the earth to the end that during the time of Winter it may grow in season And if the said ground 〈◊〉 need of more helpe it must be dunged with Sheepes dung or else with Goats dung well rotted and this to be done a long time before you intend to sow your Meloâ— seed for as for Horse or Cow dung it must not be vsed except it be when no other thing can be gotten and when it is vsed it must be spread and mixt with the earth long before Seed-time as hath beene said whereby wee may iudge how vnfâ—â— the beds now adaâ—es vsed are for to yeeld good Melons and they that would haâ—e them grow vpon beds as lesle damnifying must make their beds in the said place of the Garden compassed about and hemmed in with a Mat and vpon the bed must be cast a layer of the best and fattest earth that you can find or of earth the thicknesse of three fingers and in this earth to set your seeds for the Melon will not be so much spotted with the dung when there is a mixture of the one and the other You must take the seed of the Melon which hath a thicke and hard huske and looking verie greene within which is of the first growne and of those which grow neerest vnto the root which you shall haue reserued in your Melon plot vntill the full â—ipenesse thereof that so you might haue others grow of it for the seed is better when it is now taken out of the Melon hauing beene all that while from the gathering time kept in the bodie and substance thereof And if you would haue it to grow verie quickly sleepe it in warme water sixe or seuen houres afterward aboâ—â— the tenth day of March make your pits vpon your beds some three or foure foot one from another and two foot in depth and widenesse and if you may make yoâ—â— choice of dung then fill them vp with Sheepe or Goats dung that is old well rotted and crumbly and with verie fine blacke earth together and herewith to fill them vp within two â—ingers Some put therein the dung of horses comming hot from the stable to make thâ—m put forth the sooner but the sauour and goodnesse of the Melon is greatly hindered thereby and thereupon pricke six or ten seeds of your pompions the sharpe end downeward although some put not in aboue foure or fiue and couer them againe gently without much beating or treading of the earth downe vpon them Afterward for to auoid daunger of frosts couer them with straw or mats borne vp with stickes prickt vp one way or if you haue the benefit of great boards or tables of boards borne vp with stones or rubbish by the way that so they may not presle vpon them and that so you may take them vp when the Sunne shineth hot and lay them downe againe when the cold wind bloweth and when frosts come And as soone as the Melons shall haue put forth leaues bigge ynough you must water them with a shred of cloth hanging continually in a pot of water without wetting of the Melon any whit at all and this watering must be continued in a verie drie ground though you haue remoued your Melons till the fruit become of the bignesse of Oranges and if you vse beds you shall remoue them after mid-May in this countrie out of the danger of frosts about fiue or sixe foot one from another vpon a border well tilled and manured And from that time forward you shall weed out diligenetly all the weeds from about them and shall lighten their earth at the trunk of the root without doing any hurt to it and when the flower shall peepe out you must cut off the ends of the armes of the heaâ— be to the end that the flower and the fruit may come forth in greater store aboundance And for
soeuer doth heale and cure the same presently it 〈◊〉 the like in old vlcers though they pierce vnto the bone iâ— you continue the vse of it so long as there shall be any need for it maketh the flesh to grow againe and consumeth the filhinesse of the vlcers which I my selfe haue proued in two 〈◊〉 of the nose caused of the French disease out of which the juice of this hearbe 〈◊〉 great store of vvormes to come Greene vvounds prouided that they be nâ—t 〈◊〉 deepe are healed in a day by putting into them of this juice and applying of thâ— drosse vpon them and if it happen that they should be deepe then it is but the â—â—â—ther washing of them with wine and then to put this juice into them and the 〈◊〉 thereof aboue and vpon them with a linnen cloth dipt into the juice also for 〈◊〉 more briefe and speedâ—â—hr curing of them it were good that they were washed 〈◊〉 and without with the same juice Nicotiana dried hath the like operation in the diseases and accidents aboue spâ—ken of the way to drie them is this You must take the fairest leaues and those also that are indifferent faire and put them vpon a file and afterward drie 〈…〉 the shadow hanging vnder some chamber doore not in the Sunne Wind or 〈◊〉 and so you may keepe them whole to vse them afterward thus dried or else in poâ—der And that I may particularly touch the diseases which the dried leaues are good for If you take of the best Tabacco or Nicotiana I doe not meane such as groâ—eth and is frequent with vs but that which is naturally good as hauing all his right both of Sunne and soyle and is brought from the Indians of which there are 〈◊〉 kinds according to the natures of the countries and the plantation of the herbe 〈◊〉 in leafe some in roll and some in ball and twine it verie hard as you can togethâ—â— then with a knife shred it verie small and spreading it vpon a cleane sheet of 〈◊〉 drie it ouer a gentle fire made of charcoale or other fuell that hath no stinke 〈◊〉 smoake then when it is cold you shall put it into a Tabacco pipe that is 〈◊〉 cleane or new 〈◊〉 the figure whereof is needlesâ—e to relate because the world 〈◊〉 so much inchaunted therewith that not any thing whatsoeuer is halfe so 〈…〉 this is now a daies and hauing slopt it hard into the pipe you shall with a 〈◊〉 candle or other sweet flame set it on fire and then sucking and drawing the 〈◊〉 into your mouth you shall force the fume forth at your nosthrills which fume 〈◊〉 the head be well couered make that you shall auoid at the mouth such 〈◊〉 sâ—â—mie and flegmaticke water as that your bodie thereby will become leane aâ— if 〈◊〉 had fasted long by which one may conjecture that the dropsie not confirmed 〈◊〉 be holpen by taking the same fume the same fume taken at the mouth is 〈◊〉 good for them that haue a short breath old cough or rheumes in which 〈◊〉 maketh them to auoyd infinite quantitie of thicke and slimie flegme The 〈◊〉 of the Mother otherwise called the Suffocation of the Mother is healed by 〈◊〉 this fume into the secret parts For the head-ach comming of a cold or windie cause if you cannot come by the greene leaues then take the drie moistening them first with a little wine and after drying them at liue ashes then afterward sprinkle vpon them sweet water and so applie them vnto your head or any other such place where you feele any paine you may doe as much with the powder of the leaues dried wingling therewithall things appropriat vnto the disease Such as are subject vnto swounings are by and by brought againe by taking at the mouth or nosthralls the fume of the said leaues burnt in respect whereof Indian women keepe this hearbe verie carefully because they be subiect to swounings Which is more the inhabitance of Florida doe feed themselues a certaine space with the fume of this hearbe whatsoeuer a certaine new Cosmographer say to the contrarie who seeketh by his â—yes to triumph ouer vs in this respect which they take at the mouth by the meanes of certaine small hornes the picture whereof you may see by the figure of the hearbe And the truth hereof we gather from them which haue beene in the countries of Florida and by mariners comming daily from the Indies which hanging about their neckes little pipes or hornes made of the leaues of the Date-tree or of reeds or of rushes at the ends of which little hornes there are put and packt many drie leaues of this plant writhen together and broken They put fire to this end of the pipe receiuing and drawing in with their breath at their mouth wide open so much of this fume as possibly they can and affirme thereupon that they find their hunger and chirst satisfied their strength recouered their spirits rejoyced and their braine drencht with a delightsome drunkennesse as also to auoyd out of the mouth an infinite quantitie of flegmaticke water But in that the fume of this hearbe maketh men somewhat drunke some men haue thought it to be verie cold and by that reason a kind of yellow Henbane which it resembleth much in his stalkes leaues cups and seed as we haue said before but we must know that the fume of this hearbe doth not make drunken so quickly and withall that this kind of drunkennesse doth not proceed of excessiue cold such as is found in Henbane but rather in a certaine atomaticall vapour which doth fill the ventricles of the braine All which vertues and properties besides that we haue proued and tried them in many diseases here in the countries of France to the great comfort of the sicke they also which come from the Indies and new world of Florida haue confidently auouched vnto vs to haue proued and tried the same in themselues hauing beene wounded and hurt when they made warre in the countrie against the rebellious and trecherous Indians who likewise affirme that much good is spoken of this hearbe euen of all the priests of these barbarous nations whereof they make vse in their Magicall practises and diuinations imagining that by the vertue thereof the things which they desire to know are reuealed vnto them And that it is so the sauage and bruitish Indians being accustomed to aske of their Priests the successe and euents of things to come is proued by the Priests for then they to fulfill the desires and requests of the Indians take the leaues of this plant and put them in a pipe or hollow end of a cane and being mixt with Wine they sup in and receiue it all at the mouth and by and by after they fâ—ll in a trance and become as men without life so long as vntill the hearbe haue ended his operation and then they rise vp halfe giddie and so
difficultie of Vrine it strengtheneth the Reines â—nd healeth the bitings of venimous beasts The distilled water thereof is good aâ—ainst both quotidian and quartane Feauers it helpeth the French disease and stopâ—eth salt humors Then lastly Feniculus Porcinus which delighteth a great deale â—ore in the shade than in the Sunne-shine it would be sowne or planted either in 〈◊〉 Spring time or in Autumne it comforteth much the sinewes and strengtheneth â—eake backes To conclude those hearbes which affect the South is first the blessed Thistle of â—hich we haue spoke before Then Veruaine of which there be two sorts the male â—nd the female both desire to be planted from the roots in good ground either in the â—pring or in Autumne This hearbe is of great reputation especially amongst the â—omanes who vse if continually amongst their Inchantments it taketh away the â—aine of the Teeth and it healeth anie old Vlcer it is good against anie Feaâ—er easeth the paine of the Collicke and expelleth Grauell Then Saxifrage which is of two sorts the great and the lesse they may be sowne or planted in anie good ground which is fat and light in the moneth of March The chiefest 〈◊〉 of this hearbe is to breake the Stone prouoke Vrine helpe womens Termes and 〈◊〉 driue away all euill humours out of the Stomacke Then Pionie of which wee 〈◊〉 spoken before Then Hermole or the Turkes hearbe which loueth a fat blacke and drie mould it may be either planted or sowne The vertue of this hearbe 〈◊〉 to make one to hold his Vrine the powder of it being taken either in Broth or 〈◊〉 white Wine Then Acanthus or Brankvrsine is an hearbe which the auncient Aâ—chitects were wont to carue infolding and imbracing their Columnes or Pyllastâ—â— of the Corinthian fashion Whence it came that the Romanes of auncient 〈◊〉 did call it Marmoralia because such Pillars commonly were of Marble It is 〈◊〉 be sowne in the moneths of March or Aprill in a well tilled Garden his 〈◊〉 are good against the Stone and stay the flux of the bellie Then Aristolochia 〈◊〉 both kinds of which wee haue spoken before Then Perforatio which is so called from the affection that it beareth to the Sunne it may be sowne in the Spring 〈◊〉 in anie light earth The seed of this hearbe beaten to powder and drunke in 〈◊〉 Wine cureth a tertian Feauer and easeth those which are troubled with the 〈◊〉 or Sciatica if the powder of it be cast vpon Vlcers it also healeth them and the decoction of the leaues thereof prouoketh Vrine exceedingly Then Arum 〈◊〉 also delighteth in a good Soyle rather moist than drie it flourisheth most in Iune and the leaues thereof are like the leaues of Millet and when it is in the prime 〈◊〉 hath a yellow colour like vnto Saffron it is to be sowne onely in the moneth of March This hearbe is verie soueraigne against the Gout and driueth away 〈◊〉 flegmaticke humours if it be bruised it cureth old Vlcers and all wounds or â—â—tings giuen by the Wolfe the leaues boyled in Wine helpeth bruises and displaced members or bones out of ioint it helpeth the Hemorrhoids also Then 〈◊〉 of which we haue spoke before Then Carline which tooke the name from Charlâ—â— the great King of France who by the vse of it onely cured himselfe of the Plaguâ— it loueth a drie stonie ground and where it may haue the strength of the Sunnâ— beames it must be sowne in the Spring time or else planted from the root 〈◊〉 powder of this hearbe being drunke chaseth away all infection and prouokâ—â— Vrine it is good against all Conuulsions and being made into a Cataplasme â—â—â—tifieth and strengtheneth the heart if it be steeped or mixed well with vineger 〈◊〉 easeth either the Gout or the Sciatica being applyed vnto the place grieued Thâ— little Germander which differeth not much from water Germander onely it â—â—ueth a drie and stonie earth and rather a hot than a cold it loueth the 〈◊〉 beames and is rather to be planted from the root than sowne from the seed 〈◊〉 in the Spring time or in Autumne it is good against infection and helpeth 〈◊〉 Feauers it helpeth the Epilepsis paine in the head and anie other griefes of 〈◊〉 braine it cureth Conuulsions the Gout and warmeth the entrailes Then Nicâ—â—â—ana or Tabacco of which wee haue spoken before Then Peper which must 〈◊〉 planted immediately after Winter in a well tilled earth and endureth long in Gâ—â—dens without anie helpe of transplanting Then Camomill which is of three 〈◊〉 differing onely in the colours of their flowers for the one is white the other yellâ—â— and the third purple It loueth an earth cold and drie it is best planted from 〈◊〉 root or slippe either in Autumne or the Spring time it loueth to be oft troden 〈◊〉 or pressed downe and therefore is most placed in Alleyes Bankes or Seats in 〈◊〉 Garden It is good against a tertian Feauer and the bath which is made 〈◊〉 strengtheneth much weake members and comforteth the sinewes both of the 〈◊〉 and legges it comforteth also the reines The water thereof also distilled is 〈◊〉 good for the same purposes and the iuice thereof mixed with womans 〈◊〉 Rosewater and the iuice of Housleeke warmed and a Rose-cake steeped 〈◊〉 with a Nutmeg grated on it and so applyed vnto the temples of the head â—keth away all paine therein how violent soeuer it be Diuers other hearbes 〈◊〉 be which are of like natures to these alreadie rehearsed but from the experience 〈◊〉 these a reasonable iudgement may find how to plant nourish and vse anie whatsoeuer There be also diuers purgatiue Simples as Rhubarbe Agaricke and such like which for as much as our Soyles will not endure or beare them I will here omit to speake of them onely a word or two of the hearbe Sene which is somewhat more frequent with vs and is of that delicate holesome and harmelesse nature in his working and operation that it may be tearmed the Prince or Head of Simples Then touching Sene you shall vnderstand that it beareth little small thicke leaues vpon a high large stalke it hath flowers of the colour of gold with diuers purple veines running vpon them Some take the Hearbe which Theophrastus writeth of called Colutea to be Sene but they are deceiued therein for the one is a Tree and no Hearbe and the other is an Hearbe and no Tree besides diuers other differences needlesse here to repeat all which are at large see downe by Anthonie Mirauld Doctor of Physicke and a Bourbonois in his booke intituled Maison Champestre It may be planted either from the stalke or root like Rosemarie in anie good fertile and drie soyle where it may haue the full reflection of the Sunne and the season best and fittest for the same plantation is at the later end of Autumne As touching the choice of the best Sene that hath euer the best reputation which is brought from Alexandria in Syria as
picked and the leaues pulled off euen from the lowest part of them vnto where you perceiue the leaues to grow tender and these stalkes you must salt in a little Trough or Tray and so let them continue a day and a night vntill that they haue turned the â—alt into brine after this they must be washed in the same brine of salt and after that they haue beene spraind they are layed abroad vpon hurdles vntill they be well dried afterward there must be put vpon them dried Dill â—ennell a little Rue and Lâ—â—kes chopped small after all this the said stalkes are put vp in a pot thus dried and there is powred in vpon them a pickle which is made of two parts of vineger and one of salt brine after this in stead of a double Linnen cloth to couer it there must be thrust in good store of drie Fennell vpon them in such sort as that the pickle may swell vp and ouer-couer them And euermore in all confections it must be a speciall great care that they remaine not drie and to that end to powre in pickle oftentimes â—f by turning them aside you see they haue need After this fashion may Succorie Scariole Harts-horne the tender shoots of Brambles the young and tender croppes of Thyme Sauorie Organie and Radishes be preâ—erued and such preserues must be made in the beginning of Summer The hearbes preserued with salt and vineger are chiefely ordained for Salads but these that are made with sugar and honey doe serue for the vse of Physicke such are those which follow hereafter There is but verie seldome any preserues made of the flowers and leaues of herbes I vnderstand by this preserue taken properly the preseruing of things whole and not stampt and beaten into one bodie notwithstanding who so is disposed to preserue the flowers or leaueâ— of hearbes may doe it in this fashion Take the leaues or flowers of such herbes as you will preserue make them very cleane afterward without anie manner of stamping of them put them all whole into some vessell wherein 〈◊〉 will keepe them cast vpon them a sufficient competencie of fine Sugar made in pâ—â—der and so â—et them to Sunning in the vessell Also in this â—ort boyle them at a 〈◊〉 fire with Sugar so long as till the Sugar become as thicke as a syrrup and 〈…〉 them in a vessell Otherwise after that you haue diligently cleansed the leaues or the flowers of the hearbes put them in an earthen pot or glasse and after poure into them of boyled Sugar of the consistence of a syrrup and well clarified Thus may Roses leaues of Mines Spleenewort Maiden-haire Sorrell Ceterach Buglosse and such like be preserued the flowers of Marigolds Succorie Violets Broome Sage and other such like and such preserues are more acceptable than conserues because the flowers and leaues doe in better sort retaine and keepe their naturall smell thus than in conserues for in conserues they are powned with Sugar which doth rebate verie much the naturall smell of the leaues or flowers Now as concerning making of conserues of leaues or flowers of hearbes you 〈◊〉 keepâ— this course Take the tendrest parts of the flowers or leaues and cast away the hardest such as are the white tailes of Rose leaues the stalkes of Mints Spleenwort Maiden-haire and such like make them verie cleane and bray them afterward in a Marble Mortar or of other Stone with a pestle hard and solide ynough and that so long as till they become in manner of a past and then put vnto them twice or thrice as much Sugar or Honey And if it fall out that the leaues or flowers so â—â—amped be of themselues somewhat too moist as the leaues of Violets water Lillies and Bugloâ—â—e be then put thereto great quantitie of the powder of Sugar When you haue thus done put them into an earthen Vessell and set them abroad a Sunning a whole moneth that so their superfluous moisture may be spent by the heat of the Sunne but they must be stirred euerie day Or if you had rather doe thus Set the Vessels vpon hot ashes to the end they may take a little boyle but this is not so good as the setting of them in the Sunne After this manner may the flowers of Rosemarie Marâ—golds Beâ—onie Pionie Marierome Balme Scabâ—oâ—s Elder tree Mints fuâ—â—itorie Eye-bright Succorie of the flowers of the Peach-tree Sage Broome Oranges Mâ—â—lowes Hollyhocke and other such like the toppes of Thyme Hysope and Worme wood the conserue whereof we haue said before to be verie soueraigne in the Dropsie as also the conserue of Peach-tree flowers and that of Broome flowers for the obstructions of the reines and spleene And for as much as the conserues of Violets and Roses are in great vse and request we will speake particularly of them To make conserue of Roses you must take the leaues of Roses white or red which are not as yet open and blowne you must make them cleane and stampe them without being dried before in a Stone Mortar and after put thereto thrice their weight in Sugar and then put it vp in a Glasse-vessell well couered with Parchment and set in the Sunne the space of three moneths and stirring it almost euerie day If you would make conserues of drie Roses boile in halfe a pound of Rosewater one whole pound or thereabout of fine Sugar afterward when you see that all the water is conâ—â—â—med cast into the Sugar an ounce of drie Roses made into powder boyle them altogether reasonably and after with a spatule of wood you shall make your conserue into morsels or cakes Otherwise make three infusions of Roses in Rosewater let the third settle the bottome whereof you shall let alone as being the earthie and grosse part taking that onely that is aboue and in it you shall boyle fine Sugar and after that you shall cast thereinto halfe an ounce or thereabout of dried Roses in powder and doe in like manner afterward as hath beene alreadie said To make conserues of Violets you must take the fresh and new flowers of Violets and take from them their taile and the little greene cup by which they hang and after drie them some small time in the shadow of the Sunne to take from them their superfluous moisture which they haue after that bray them in a Stone Mortar with twicâ— so much Sugar and put them in a Glasâ—e vessell which shall be set to Sunne for the space of three moneths and stirred verie oft during the said tâ—â—e as hath beene alreadie said of the conserue of Roses If you would make conserue of drie Violets make one or two infusions of Violets and in them boyle fine Sugar afterward casting halfe an ounce of powdred Violets to one pound of Sugar then boyling them a little together you shall with a spatule make your conserue into morsels or cakes For to make Mustard you must picke and cleanse your seed verie
wish amongst the Brambles and Bushes and therefore from hence it may be transplanted and remoued into your Garden for the benefit of your Arbours The root especially the iuice doth mightily loosen the bellie prouoke vrine purge the braine open the spleene and take away the hardnesse thereof applyed in forme of a Pessarie it bringeth downe the termes the after-birth and dead child stamped with salt and applyed it healeth vlcers it cleanseth the skinne and taketh away the red pimples of the face for which purpose also serueth the water thereof which you may gather in the moneth of May out of a pit which you shall make in the head of the root as it standeth in the ground according as we haue alreadie said in the Chapter of Violets going before In a Cataplasme it is singular against the Sciatica as also to take away the haire from some place being mixed and stamped with Bulls bloud it is of maruellous effects in hard and schirrous swellings and cankerouâ— tumours We haue spoken heretofore of cucumbers and gourds and therefore it is not needfull to make any new repetition The ordering of hops is like vnto that of the wild vine for one and the same ground and dressing vvill serue both The flowers crops and juice pressed out doe take away the obstructions of the liuer and spleene and the vse thereof is verie conâ—enient for such as haue the dropsie therewith beere is made as we shall further declare hereafter Maruailous apples are verie fit to ouerspread arbours as well in respect of their beautie as for that they are pliant and winding easily about the poles They would be sowne in the Spring time in a fat and well battilled ground they cannot endure the cold so soone as their fruit is ripe which is in Autumne they drie away by and by wherefore you must sow them where the Sunne hath full power vpon them and water them oft in the time of great heat gathering their fruit in September These apples resemble little lymons as being sharpe pointed at the end 〈◊〉 bellied in the middest rough as wild Cucumbers greene at the beginning but aâ—terward turning red the first that euer brought them into France was Reâ—e du Bellay Bishop of Mans. They haue also beene found in the gardens of the religious of S. Geâ—manes in the fields and in the Temple garden at Paris They are called of the Greekes Gratious apples because of their well pleasing beautie and of the Latines Viticella Momordica and Balsamita this last name was giuen to them by reason of the vertues of Balme which they haue and in French Maruailous apples because of the maruailous vertue that they haue to heale wounds Some take all the seeds 〈◊〉 of the apples putting the said apples into a viole of vnripe oyle oliue or insteed of oyle made of vnripe oliues which is not alwaies readie to be had at Paris some 〈◊〉 common oyle verie well in Rose-water or Common water or plantaine or Mulberie water and doe afterward set the said viole a long time in the Sunne when it 〈…〉 his heat or else they put it in a vessell of hot boyling vvater or else burie it in the earth or in horse dung and this oyle is singular good to assuage inflammations of wounds and of the breasts and hath no lesse vertue than Balme to consolidate 〈◊〉 heale wounds either new or old being a thing tried of many The fruit soaked 〈◊〉 oyle of sweet Almonds or Linseed adding thereto an ounce of liquid vernish 〈◊〉 euerie pound of oyle maketh the oyle verie soueraigne for the paines of the Hâ—â—â—â—rhoides Burnings prickings of the sinews and to take away the skarres of â—oundâ— The leaues dried and made into powder and drunke the quantitie of a spoonefull with the decoction of plantaine doe heale the gripes in the guts the paine of the colicke and the wounds of the guts The oyle wherein this fruit hath beene soaked doth keepe in his place the fundament wont to fall downe in little children if it be often rubbed therewith it maketh barren women fruitfull if after they haue bathed in a bath for the purpose and drunke of the powder of the leaues of this hearbe they annoint their secret parts with this oyle dwelling afterwards with their husbands The maruailous pease are verie rare in this countrie resembling somewhat Winter cherries as hauing their seed inclosed in a little filme or skinne like vnto a â—ich pease in the middest whereof there is the shape as it were of a heart They delight in a very fat moist and well sunned soyle and cannot abide to endure the cold Winter cherries which the Latines call Halicacaâ—um and the Arabians Aâ—â—kengi are delighted in vines wherefore they which would haue it planted in their garden must picke out for it such a soyle as would fit the vine The little 〈◊〉 which is inclosed in the bladder is singular good to prouoke the decayed vrine and to take away the sharpnesâ—e and scalding thereof for the juice thereof mixt with 〈◊〉 creame or milke of white poppie seed or with the decoction of the seed of meloâ—â— or gourds mallows or barly ptisane and drunke doth maruailously mitigate the scalding of the vrine if the root come neere vnto the aspe or lizard it casteth them into a dead sleepe and killeth them the vse of the cherrie is soueraigne against the stone and grauell Likewise for this disease some make a Wine which is called Winter-cherrie wine which is made with the new pressed liquor of good white wine when in hath beene infused a certaine quantitie of these cherries or with a certaine quaâ—titie of these cherries cast with an equall quantitie of white wine grapes all whole into a new vesâ—ell the same vesâ—ell afterward being filled vp with white wine new froâ— the presse being afterward scummed and vsed after the manner of other wines or else this wine may be thus made these cherries are troden amongst ripe grapes and being suffered to worke together certaine daies they are afterward â—unned vp 〈◊〉 vessells and ordered as other wines this wine taken the quantitie of foure 〈…〉 the morning three or foure daies together in the decrease of the Moone cleanseth the reines and purgeth out great quantitie of grauell CHAP. LIIII Of Trees both great and small as well outlandish as of the same Countrie being planted or sowne either vpon beds or in vessells in the Garden THe Bay-tree will grow in all places but it is not as easily preserued and kept in euerie place for it delighteth especially and naturally in a hot or temperate countrie for in a cold it groweth not but by constraine but and if you be disposed to haue it to grow in this cold countrie you 〈◊〉 plant it so vpon the Sunne as that it may thereby shâ—ke off and better passe 〈◊〉 the extremitie of the cold and on the contrarie in a hot countrie you must plant 〈◊〉 so as
them so much of the earth from which they 〈…〉 as may defend them from being hurt either by the Wind or Sunne and hauing thus done to fit them further with Barrels or Sere-clothes the better to keepe 〈◊〉 from all the iniuries of the ayre as also from the raine and to cause them to be â—â—â—ueyed vpon Horses Carts or Waggons so soone euen the same night that they shall come to the place where you would set them you must well aduise and 〈◊〉 they be altered which will be knowne by the change of the leaues and barke 〈◊〉 then to prouide for that accordingly for in such case you must take away the earth and temper it soft anew water them cut them and take away the blasted or 〈◊〉 vntill such time as the pits where you intend to set them be seasoned in such sort 〈◊〉 manner as shall be said hereafter You shall in the day time view well your ground and see that it be a good substantiall blacke open tender sweet light fat and cleane earth without anie 〈◊〉 stone whatsoeuer neere vnto the Sea coast if it be possible where moisture 〈◊〉 and furthermore that it be easie to be stirred to the end it may drinks in 〈◊〉 water in aboundance where you meane to set these Trees For these Trees 〈◊〉 much watering if the water should stand aboue the earth and not sinke 〈◊〉 the roots would become sicke discoloured and by little and little would looke the 〈◊〉 colour of pale blacke or blew If the earth be not easie to be stirred you 〈◊〉 couer it with Horse dung verie well rotted or else with Oxe or Sheepes dung 〈◊〉 by this meanes it will become easie to be pierced or stirred The place where 〈◊〉 are to be planted must be open vpon the Sunne a high place and sheltred 〈…〉 the quarters from whence froâ—tie winds doe blow but principally the 〈◊〉 wind which is alwaies most contrarie vnto those Plants It must be also open vpon the South because contrarie to the nature of all Trees they feed vpon this 〈◊〉 and starue through that of the North and a little vpon the West in such sort as that they may be guarded on the back part and both sides but specially the Citron-tree which is the most tender of all the other For which considerations it will not be amisse to set them neere vnto some wall of a conuenient height to the end they may haue a rampart against the Northerne parts and for the more certainetie to make them a hood and flankers of Bay trees for the encrease both of the beautifulnesse as also of the profit of the same for some hold that the companie of the Bay tree doth keepe the Orange tree from frost These Bay trees shall be planted in double chesse that so the thinnest places of the first may be amended by the thickest places of the second but and if you haue not Bay trees to doe it withall then you may take Cypresse trees And here you must learne that Orange-trees loue not the companie of anie other tree but of the fore-named and of the Myrtle-tree The best of all and most assured for profit were to plant the said Orange-trees Citron-trees and other such like Trees in halfe Barrels or Vessels of earth made for the purpose they being the chiefe pleasures of Princes and great Lords or else in Cases that are wide below and narrow aboue builded of clouen boords verie well ioyned and fitted together in such sort as that no shoots may grow through them for the earth by reason of the oft watering of it doth not cease continually to cause them to put forth and breake out one way or other But that such watering may be conueyed in best sort for their growth it must be prouided and brought by some low conduit and passage and the surplusage carried away by some such cocke as is vsed in Lee tubs and such or the like Vessels must be made to carrie into anie place whatsoeuer a man will for seeing that these Plants doe die if they be touched neuer so little with frost as being most tender and daintie of their naturall inclination it must be looked vnto in Winter after that they are well couered and compassed about with straw or the stalkes of Gourds for by a naturall contrarietie they are giuen to let and hinder the frost from hurting them that they be conueyed vpon small Wheele-barrowes into vaulted Caues and when Summer is come to returne and bring them backe againe into the full and open Sunne to be nourished and refreshed by the heat thereof Then hauing found out such a place in the Garden as wee haue spoken of there shall Pits be cast with distances betwixt and whereas the Orange-tree doth shoot out his roots deepe into the earth you must cast the said Pits a good fadome deepe and a fadome and a halfe in compasse which shall be well broken and made soft that so the root may rest and spread it selfe at pleasure which Pits shall grow narrower by little and little towards their top and where they are to embrace and close in the foot of the tree These Pits to doe well should be kept open a yeare or thereabout if it were possible for the well seasoning of them which by manie Sunne-shines and manie Raines would be effected but there may more speed be made with them either by couering the places of the said Pits with well rotted dung and new ashes which neuer were wet and watering it with a little water if the time and season be not rainie or by filling vp the said Pits with Wheat straw or with small Vine branches burning it all and afterward watering the ashes which shall remaine if the season be drie and without raine for within eight or tenne daies after this preparing of it the said Pits will be well seasoned About the end of the same time you must againe breake and soften the earth of the seat of the said Trees and the sides thereof and lay into them a finger thicknesse of dung and againe vpon this dung the like thicknesse of good mould and then vpon it to set the Tree in the verie same aspect of the Sunne if it be possible that it stood in before the taking vp that is to say that euerie part of the tree stand vpon the same quarters of the Heauens that it did before for otherwise it would not serue if the â—ide beholding the North before should now behold and stand vpon the East or West And this obseruation is of great moment for as much as they which faile in this doe oftentimes see their Trees dead or else notwithstanding whatsoeuer other meanes vsed bringing foorth verie late and vntimely fruit with like vntimely growth and blossoming which they would not haue fallen into if they had beene see againe after the manner they stood before they put forth 〈◊〉 budde 〈…〉 of the earth And this diâ—aduantage likewise happeneth vnto them
root as that it may seeme and shew as though one had cut them away with a hooke and after that to lay them in order in the shadow that so the Sunne may not harme or injure them The manner of making Woad Vnder your Mill which would not be as some vse a Mâ—ll-stone for that crusheth out the sap and juice of the Woad too much but a Mill made of strong timbers the compasse of a large Mill-stone being hollow or dâ—â—uided onâ— out-side from the other and running circular or round and these out-sides shall be bound together both in the middest by the drawing axell-tree and also at the outmost Verdges by strong places of yron made broad and flat with reasonable rebated edges and these plates shall be at least three foot in lengâ—h answering to the full bredth of the trough in which the Mill shall run and this Mill must be 〈◊〉 about by a horse Now the leaues as aforesaid being â—â—rewed in the trough vnder the Mill you shall grind them as small as may be till they come to be as it were all one substance which may easily be done by oft turning the Woad ouer and ouer as the Mill runnes which one must continually doe with a shouell then the Woad being thus sufficiently well ground you shall stay the horse and takâ— all the ground Woad out of the trough and then fill the Mill with fresh Woad againe and thus do till you haue ground all you woad which being finished you shall forthwith mould it vp into great round balls as bigge as a culuerine bullet or twice so bigge as a mans fists and these balls you shall place vpon fleakes or hurdles made of small wands pent-housed housed or couered ouer to keepe them from the raine but all the sides open in such wise that the Sunne or Wind may haue full power to passe through the same and these hurdles shall be mounâ—ed one aboue another in many heights and degrees and your Woad balls shall lye thereupon without touching one another till they be throughly well dried then at the later end of the yeare which is towards Nouember you shall breake those balls againâ— and put them vnder the Mill and grind them as before and then taking it from the Mill you shall lay it in great heapes in some coole vault kept for that purpose onely and when vpon this laying together vpon heapes it shall begin to take heat it must be turned and in turning watered vntill it be sufficiently moistned for as too much water drowneth it so too much heat in the heapes doth burne it thereupon you most pile it vpon heapes not high but long ones and stirre it euerie second day so long as till it become cold and yet after this to put it abroad euerie fouâ—th or sixth day while it be throughly cooled indeed And this worke must be verie carefully performed for otherwise the woad would roast it selfe and proue not any thing worth which being so â—â—immed and ordered as it should it is left in some cold and paued place vntill the time of the selling of it and looke how much the longer it lyeth in heapes in this â—ase by so much it becommeth the better and finer The counâ—rie men of Tholouse in whose countrie there groweth great store of Woad doe not grind their Woad-balls into 〈◊〉 but gather it together by great vessells full and put vnder the Mill-stone to 〈◊〉 out the waterish parts of it and then they make vp the remaining substance 〈…〉 like loâ—ues which they drie and rot afterward by laying them in the 〈◊〉 heat of the Sunne in Sommer time and then they cast these lumpes into their 〈◊〉 where they put their Wooll to be died a blew blacke or other colour as it best pleaseth the Dyers The leaues thereof made into a plaister doe 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—stumes and heale wounds new made they stay fluxes of bloud heale the wild 〈◊〉 and the vlcers which runne ouer the whole bodie Also the leaues of Woad thus ground are excellent to kill any itch 〈◊〉 or other râ—islike either in men or children also it is most excellent for the diâ—â—â—â— is 〈◊〉 called the Farcie and cureth it verie sodainely CHAP. LVII Of the Tasell THe Tasell called also Venus her bathing tubbe because it keepeth 〈◊〉 drops of water being by nature as all the other Thistles are hot and drie in the lower part of the leaues close by the stalkes to refresh and water it selfe withall serueth greatly in respect of his head for the vse of Clothworkers both to lay the Wooll of their new clothes so muchâ—â— is 〈◊〉 as also to draw forth so much as lyeth loose out of order amongst the rest and it is 〈◊〉 seruiceable or more vnto Cap-makers after that the Cap is spun wouen 〈◊〉 and scoured with sope Walkers-earth or other scouring earth Now he that will 〈◊〉 profit by this hearbe must make choyce of a good fat ground well 〈…〉 tilled with two three or foure arders and well harrowed and then after 〈◊〉 it with the best seed that possibly may be â—â—und and that verie thicke and when 〈◊〉 hath shot one of the earth as in the beginning of May then to make it cleane 〈◊〉 weed it with the hand and in Iune and Iulie to digge it if need be in the end of September you must gather the heads that haue flowred the first yeare leâ—â—â—â—â— the rest to grow for to be gathered the yeare following at such time as they shall be 〈◊〉 flowre The heads cut off the plants must be planted anew in a well tilled ground putting all the root into holes from one to another which is all one with the 〈◊〉 ring of the Radish and trampling the ground vpon them verie orderly and 〈◊〉 and furthermore to digge them when they begin to pricke and put forth branchesâ—â— in March Aprill and May and to cut them which are cankered or 〈◊〉 and so vnprofitable that so the juice of the earth may be fed vpon by those onely which are good and seruiceable And whereas at the time of their flowring they begin 〈◊〉 flowre on high on the head and so downeward till the whole head be 〈…〉 flowre being once fallen you must cut off the head either euening or morning 〈◊〉 halfe a foot of stalke thereunto Furthermore you must not forget that they must be set or sowne in furrowes that so water may haue an orderly course to fall to the 〈◊〉 of them and giue them a continuall refreshment and not to sow them in anie 〈◊〉 place but such as is reasonably watrie for too much moisture maketh the 〈◊〉 the head thereof which is the thing of most importance more low and short and of lesse commodiousnesse You must not gather or bind them vp in bundells 〈◊〉 a drie season towards the moneth of October at the furthest and not any 〈◊〉 earlier than the later end of September Some gathering it doe leaue it at the 〈◊〉 to drie
for thereby is hindered the growing of the graft vnto the parts which are vnder the barke I adde yet further that as men and women which are verie fat doe not beget or beare children because that spending the greatest part of their nourishment in the grosâ—enesse of their bodie they leaue no profitable superfluirie to make seed of in like sort trees which drop Pitch and Rosin spending all their substance and nourishment about the making of themselues great and thick they accordingly grow tall and thicke but they beare no fruit at all or else but a verie little and that late in the yeare before it come to his full ripenesse wherefore it is no 〈◊〉 for a stranger not to be able to liue there where the home-bred is scarce able to feed and maintaine himselfe Trees that haue a verie hard and solide wood as Box and such other or which haue a verie tender barke are not fit for grafting for the one by reason of their great tendernesse cannot hold the graft fast and close ynough 〈◊〉 the other through their great hardnesse doe wring and choake the same It is good to graft about the beginning of December or somewhat later 〈…〉 Ianuarie according as the weather is enclining vnto coldnesse or otherwise especially Hart-Cherrie-trees Peare-trees and such as beare early fruit As for Apple 〈◊〉 and Medlar-trees it is better to stay till from the end of Ianuarie vnto the beginning of March at such time as they begin to bud for they are not so forward as the other And at the same time also it will be good to graft the thicke-growne young 〈◊〉 betwixt the barke and the wood with late grafts or such as haue beene 〈◊〉 â—o the ground All moneths are good and â—it to graft in whether it be by graft 〈…〉 moneths of October and Nouember excepted but the graft is commonly 〈◊〉 in Winter as hath beene said at such time as the sappe riseth vp into the 〈…〉 they begin to bud for then the grafts doe grow and take a great deale 〈…〉 may graft likewise in Aprill and May if the graâ—â—s be full of little eyeleâ—s and that they haue beene kept buried and their tops out of the ground in cold and 〈◊〉 places It is true that the time of grafting must be measured and iudged of according to the countrey and qualitie of the Region for in a cold Countrey it must be later and earlier in a hot notwithstanding to speake generally of all 〈◊〉 the fittest time to graft is from the first day of Februarie vnto the first 〈…〉 May taking regard to the nature of the plants for such as haue most iuice 〈…〉 grafted and those later which are the drier the Pomegranate and 〈…〉 which alâ—hough they be drie will notwithstanding be grafted 〈…〉 in the yeare It is certaiâ—e that grafts must be gathered in the decrease of the Moone to be grafted at the same time of the old of the Moone or else in the new or when you shall thinke good alwaies foreseene that the grafts be gathered in the old of the Moone euen all the grafts that may be It is true that the graft and the bud doe take better in the new than in the old of the Moone for the Moone is the 〈◊〉 of sappes as of all other iuices marrowes and humours or moist things which sappes runne betwixt the plant and the graft and bind the one to the other being of more force and power in the new of the Moone than in the old by the like reason there is a precept to be obserued and kept in the matter of grafting forbidding to graft the wind blowing at South because such winds are sharpe and drying On the 〈◊〉 shoots must be cut in the end of the Moone if so be you will haue them to bring forth much more fruit for being cut at this time they haue their sappe drunk◠〈◊〉 with setled abode and by being notched onely they do not spend themselâ—â—â— so much as when they be cut off their sap then being in his full course and 〈◊〉 Notwithstanding we trie it daily by experience that the gathering and grafting of grafts may be done at any time of the Moone as we will declare hereafter Some hold them for the best daies to graft in which are the next three or fourâ— daies before and after the increase of the new Moone but their reason taken from the sap binding and ioyning together of the grafts with the plants and from the dominion and rule of the Moone ouer the said saps doth shut out the first part of that opinion it being certaine and true that the weaker the Moone is so much the 〈◊〉 also are those inferior bodies which she hath power and gouernment of To graft vpon the wild stocke hath more hold and is more durable than that which is 〈◊〉 vpon the reclaimed tree but the fruit of the reclaimed tree is of a better taste as likewise the fruit of the graft will be which is grafted vpon a tree which blossometh and flowreth at the same time and hath a liuing and moist barke and the reason thereof is verie apparant It is vsed to graft in the barke from mid-August vnto the beginning of Winter and also at such time as the Westerne wind beginneth to blow being from the seuenth day of Februarie vnto the eleuenth of Iune but there must care be had not 〈◊〉 graft in the barke in a rainie season because it would wash away the matter of ioyning together of the one to the other and so hinder it It is vsuall to graft in the bud in the Summer time from about the end of May vntill August as being the time when the trees are strong and lustie and full of sappe and leaues as in Iune and Iuly that is to say in a hot Countrey from the middest of Iune vnto the middest of Iuly but in cold Countries vnto the middest of August after some small showers of rane And if the Summer be so exceedingly drie as that some trees doe detaine and keepe backe their sappe then you must wait till that it be returned and then to graft thereupon so soone as the grafts are gathered without hauing anie regard either vnto the new Moone or to the old whether it be in grafting in the stocke or vnto the stocke It is true that is spoken that we can neuer haue hope of much fruit by grafting in the new of the Moone but in the old beginning the first day of the full of the Moone You may graft in the Cleft without hauing regard vnto raine when the time is good and coole as from mid August vnto the beginning of Nouember for the cap and warming stuffe which is laid vnto those grafts doe put away the wast and spoyle which the raine and blasting would otherwise bring vpon them It must likewise be considered whether the tree vse to beare timely fruit or not and so to fit it with a graft of
the like condition and qualitie Againe the time and season must be considered whether it be forward or backward for the seasons are not in all yeares gouerned and carried by an vnchangeable and vnvariable line and measure for either they are more forward or backward and participate oftentimes one of anothers qualitie And in all the sorts of grafting it is a singular thing and of great preseruation for the graft to keepe the plants with Cowes dung mingled with straw As concerning the particular time of grafting it is better to graft at the euening than in the morning and neerer vnto the roots than vnto the boughs because by how much lower the graft is set by so much the greater strength and force it receiueth from the moisture of the earth The furniture and tooles wherewith a grafter should be furnished when he is disposed to graft are a Basket to lay his grafts in Clay Grauell or Sand or some such Earth as is strong to draw ouer the Plant where it is cut or clouen and for the ioining of the Graft vnto it Mosse Woollen clothes or barkes of Willow for to ioyne and tye vpon the lute or earth before spoken of that so they may keepe both it and the graft fast and Oziers to tie againe vpon the barkes to keepe them firme and fast gummed Wax to dresse and couer the ends and â—oppes of the grafts newly cut that so the raine or cold may not hurt them neither yet the sappe rising from below be consâ—rained to returne againe vnto the shoots a Hand-saw or little Saw to saw off the stocke of the Plant a little Knife or Pen-knife to graft and to cut and sharpen the graâ—ts that so the barke may not pill or be broken which often commeth to passe when the graft is full of sappe you shall cut the graft so long as that it may fill vp the cleft of the Plant and therewithall it must be left thicker on the barke side that so it may fill vp both the cleft and other incisions if anie need to be made which must be alwayes well ground neat burnished and without all rust two Wedges the one broader for thickâ— trees the other narrower for the lesse and tender trees but both of them of Box or of some other hard and smooth Wood or of Steele or of verie hard Iron that so they may craue lesse labor in often making of them sharpe and they must serue to fet wider the cleft of the Plant a little Hand-bill to set the Plant at more libertie by cutting off some of his superfluous boughes hauing a handle or helme of Inorie or Box or Brasill or some other Wood which is verie hard Trouble not your selfe with maruelling at them who graft their trees so soone as they haue planted them or very shortly after for the yong plant which can attract draw but weakely and at hand any substance for it selfe will hardly bestirre it selfe in such strong manner as to feed both the graft and it selfe and therefore the graft cannot but drie vp and againe in very deed the poore plant hath iniurie ynough to be taken vp from out of his place and to be remoued to another without heaping vpon it this new or double charge and therefore it would not be till a yeare after that it hath been transplanted and then the next yeare it will beare fruit for it neuer thriues well of his grafting if it thriue not the first yeare and when as it hath sped thus ilfauouredly 〈◊〉 will be best to cut it off and gratâ— it againe but lower CHAP. X. How to chuse gather and cut Grafts to graft in the cleft â—tocke and rind YOu must chuse your Grafts of shoots that are a yeare old or two as the most especially if you would graft them vpon old trees which are verie new and so thicke as ones little finger full of sappe hauing grosle and â—hicke set eyelets one of them being neere vnto another for else they will not beare fruit so plentifully They must also take some part with the old wood that is to say part of that which was a sience the yeare before and part of the new that is to say of the present yeare so that it must be a piece consisting of two seuerall yeares and you must if it be possible gather them from on high euen from the top or at the least from the middest of the tree and not of the lowest and thickest of the boughes of Fruit-trees and they must be in their sappe and taken from that side of the tree which standeth vpon the South for the East is not so 〈◊〉 and conuenient for vs in this cold Countrey They must also be grafted in the same situation and goodnesse of soyle that they enioyed when they were gathered for 〈◊〉 you graft them in the contrarie to either of these it will fall out with them as with plants so vnaduisedly transplanted or translated out of a hot Countrey into a cold Notwithstanding we daily perceiue that such ceremonies are of small effest seeing that the Sunne which is the Nurse-father visiteth euerie day all the sides of your tree and that the Earth wherein it is planted is not lesse nourishing on the one side 〈◊〉 on the other You must not gather your Grafts to plant at such time as the trees begin to flower especially if the trees whence they be gathered be timely fruit as Cherry-trees Plum-trees Medlar-trees Almond-trees Peach-trees and such like but the time togâ—ther them is about the foure and twentieth of December and not sooner for then the trees are full and well slcred of a mild and sweet humour But and if you should be constrained to gather them sooner whether it be vpon occasion to carrie them from one Countrey to another or such like stay at the least till October at which 〈◊〉 the leaues will be fallen from the trees The men of auncient time obserâ—ed and made great ceremonies as some doe as yet in gathering of Grafts vpon the ending of the Moone and for the grafting of them presently after the change but we find by experience that vpon all manner of daies they may be gathered and grafted in what quarter soeuer the Moone is found in as well for Fruiâ—s of stone which are more difficult to graft as also for those of Seeds or Pippins which 〈◊〉 more easie If you purpose to keepe them after they be gathered especially such as you mind to graft in the barke for such Grafts may be gathered without eyeless about the moneth of October sticke them downe in the ground at the foot of a tree lay 〈◊〉 in a pit of halfe a foot depth couer them well with earth marking the place so 〈◊〉 that you may be sure to find them when the time of grafting commeth Some 〈◊〉 them in earthen pots well stopped and couered which afterward also they burie in the ground But and if you would carrie them farre you
to end that so your stocke cleaue not too farre which is a verie vsuall cause of the miscarrying of grafts in as much as hereby the cleft standeth so wide and open as that it cannot be shut and so not grow together againe but in the meane 〈◊〉 spendeth it selfe and breatheth out all his life in that place which is the cause that the stocke and the graft are likewise spilt and this falleth out most oft in Plum-trees and branches of trees You shall also be verie carefull to ioyne together the rindes of your grafts and the plants that so nothing may continue open to the end that the wind moisture of the clay or raine running vpon the grafted place may not 〈◊〉 in When the plane cleaueth verie streight there is not anie danger or hardnesse 〈◊〉 sloping downe the graft if you leaue it somewhat vneuen or rough in some places that so the sappes both of the one and other may the better grow and be 〈◊〉 together When your grafts are once well ioyned vnto your plants draw out your wedges verie softly least you displace them againe You may leaue there within the cleft some small end of a wedge of greene wood cutting it verie close with the head of the stocke or else so soone as your wedge is drawne out put some small chip of greenâ— wood vpon the cleft of the plant Some cast glue into the cleft as it were to 〈◊〉 and glue together the sappes of the two substances Othersome sprinkle into it Sugâ—â— or powder of Cinnamon or some other such spice or some sweet smelling liquor and withall dippe the ends of the grafts in honey or in some other sweet and 〈◊〉 quor hoping that by this meanes the fruits of the trees will retaine the tast thereof But howsoeuer it is couer the cleft of the grafting all about with grauell or sand 〈◊〉 on like a causey or else with gummed waxe which is better to couer withall 〈◊〉 the former or any other thing that can be learned and that the cleft may be very 〈◊〉 filled it must be laid on two fingers thicke or thereabout that so neither wind 〈◊〉 raine may enter or get in and you shall couer it ouer with Moste or Ryestra◠〈◊〉 Barke or the thinne rinde of the Elme prepared with a little earth and 〈◊〉 of old Woollen clothes or the barke of Willow and tie them on verie strait with small Oziers but in binding them take heed that the wreaths doe not shrinke to the one side or the other and if you haue not clay then arme and couer ouer as hath beene said the said clefts with gummed waxe and for want of both these mingle small hay and the earth of the place where you graft in manner of lome or mortar When thus you grafts shall be well wreathed â—asten some small boughes about them for to keepe and defend them Furthermore if the stocke of the plant whereupon you intend to graft be 〈◊〉 so thicke as your graft you shall graft it after the fashion of a Goats foot in 〈◊〉 manner Make a cleft in the stock of the plant not direct but byas and that 〈◊〉 and euen not rough then apply and make fast thereunto the graft with all 〈◊〉 barke on and answering vnto the barke of the plant this being done cover 〈◊〉 place with fat earth and mosse of the wood ried together with a strong band 〈◊〉 to the end that the tree may not be hurt either of the winds or other things 〈◊〉 downe neere vnto it some pole of wood for to strengthten and beare it 〈◊〉 They are greatly to be blamed for their fault committed who hauing faire wild uses or others the fruit thereof displeasing them doe cut them verte low hauing faire branches aboue and a bodie of the thicknesse of a mans legge and there graft them when as fiue or sixe years will scarce couer the wound that they haue made by such their kind of grafting whereas they might with as much eale haue grafted vpon the branches of the same and then they had not beene aboue a finger thicke and would haue growne better and brought more profit because that and if you haue foure branches you may make as manie grafts thereof and these will beare fruit the second yeare CHAP. XIII Of grafting in the ends of branches FOr to graft at the end of such branches as haue goodly new wood and great siences on high although the tree haue beene grafted before and that it be as yet not throughly growne take grafts of what sort of tree you will and cut some of the siences off from the high parts of the tree where you mind to graft and if the grafts should be thicker than the siences then graft them after the manner of the Goats foot as hath beene said alreadie of small Plants And if the siences be of the same bignesse with your grafts then cut them between the old and new wood or a little higher or lower and cleaue them a little and cut the graft of the like thicknesse to the sience which you haue cut off making but a short incision and reseruing the barke vpon both sides and looking that both the sides be of equall thicknesse then set your graft thus fitted into the cleft and that so as that the barkes of both sides the graft may stand euen with the barkes of the branch And for these grafts it is ynough if euerie one of them haue one good eyelet or two about the wreathing for to leaue them anie longer would not be good and you must wreath and wrap them in earth and mosse and couer it ouer againe with Woollen clothes and tye them vnto the same verie strongly as hath beene said Also by this meanes you may procure that one tree shall bring forth diuers fruits so that they be not such as the situation of the Countrey and qualitie of the Ayre doe refuse and reiect as I haue seene sometimes at Padua in the Garden of Messire Gabriel where one stalke of a tree hath borne fruits of diuers sorts And there is nothing that should hinder or let vs in this Countrey from doing the like if it be not perhaps that in some places the fauourable furtherance and mildnesse of the ayre is not so correspondent and answerable Moreouer if you will graft little Plants in this manner see that they be of the same thicknesse of the grafts and graft them neere vnto the earth as some three fingers off or thereabouts This manner of grafting at the ends of branches must be done in trees whose branches haue beene formetly cut off by reason either of some great want or else too great aboundance of sappe and that there be put forth of their stocke some new shoots which three or foure yeares after may be grafted after the manner wee haue spoken of Thus Columella teacheth vs to graft the Oliue-tree vpon the Figge-tree CHAP. XIIII To graft betwixt the wood and the barke IT
some part of the stocke close by the earth and put through the hole a wedge of Oake watering it about with mans vrine You shall make bitter Almonds sweet if you lay round about the roots of the Almond-tree Swines dung and Vrine casting much earth vpon it afterward and this yearely or if you bore a hole in the stocke of the tree and put therein a wedge dipe in honey or if as Plinie and Theophrastus say you bore the stocke through and through below and let the sappe runne out Of sweet Almonds you may make sowre ones if you let the beasts browse and crop off the first and tender branches The Almond-tree will be free from all annoyance of fogges if so be there be smâ—ll grauell laid vnto the rootes before it blossome and when it shall begin to blossome then to take it away You may haue written Almonds if you breake the shell of an Almond veriâ— finely without doing anie harme to the kernell whereupon hauing written what you thinke good wrap vp the shell and kernell in paper and so set it well couered with dyrt and Swines dung Almonds are gathered when their huskes gape through the force of the Sunne and hauing beat them downe if you shell them altogether and wash them in salt brine they will become white and will keepe a long time prouided that before you lay them vp to keepe you drie them in the Sunne Their huskes will be easily taken off from them if you spread them vpon straw The place to keepe them well must be drie whether it be Coffer Presses or Garner and if the number be great that you would keepe you must see that the place haue good store of ayre and be lying open to the North wind The bitter Almonds haue power to resist drunkennesse as Plutarch witnesseth of a certaine Physition which did vse to drinke out all commers and not be drunken himselfe and that by eating fiue or six bitter Almonds before he did drinke but they kill Hennes and Chickens if they eat them The bitter Almond bruised and rubbed or layed to the browes and temples doe appease the head-ach and procure sâ—eepe especially if you put vnto it water of Veruaine The vse of sweet Almonds is good for them which are troubled with clammie fleame in their throat or which haue weake lungs and are subiect to the grauell in the reines or difficultie of vrine as also to restore natures force and to make men apt to venerie The gumme of the Almond-tree doth quickly stay the spetting of bloud yea the daily vse sufficiently sheweth how profitable this fruit is for it serueth all the yeare long for the making of Almond milke Potage Pennets Marchpanes and other such daintie deuises CHAP. XXII Of the Peach-tree Abricot-tree Spanish Peach-tree Peach-Plum-tree bastard Peach-tree and the small Peach-tree PEach-trees are planted of their stone setting it two fingers within the ground and the small end thereof vpward it delighteth in sandie places in drie places and where the Sunne hath his full force but in cold moist and windie places it dieth presently if it be not defended from â—he said inconueniences You must set the stone with the sharpe end turned into the â—round and when it is in the earth digge it battle and stirre vp the earth about it at â—he foot at the least thrice a yeare you must allow it dung a fat soyle and a small â—ould and that a little before Winter come and especially Swines dung which maâ—eth it to grow more thicke than anie other sort of dung or batling by this meanes â—ou shall haue good Peaches thicke ones and fleshie You must likewise weed them â—ft after when it is two yeares old you must remoue it and lay it along in his pit â—uen after the manner that they vse Vines letting one onely bough stand out of the â—arth which may grow to serue for the stocke and bodie and thus it will continue â—ong by reason of the great number of roots which it will haue both to stay it as a â—oundation and to feed it but you must cut off the longest branch and that which 〈◊〉 the straightest of all the other which is the thing that would be diligently practised â—pon all fruit trees because that it is the thing which keepeth them from bearing â—ore and aboundance of fruit It is not to be grafted out of it selfe if you will haue it â—xcellent howbeit to make it last the longer in as much as it soone waxeth old it is â—ood to graft it vpon a bitter Almond-tree damaske Prune-tree or Quince-tree but 〈◊〉 otherwise than scutcheon or fluâ—e-like It must be watered at euenings in hot weather with coole water and sometimes with water mingled with the lees of wine especially when it withereth and beginneth to fall away as also to remedie it when it is in danger of fainting and drying you must lop it and cut away all the boughes as is wont to be done with Willowes when they are headed for by that means they become lustie and frolike and to haue as manie boughes as they had before It must also be sâ—ayed vpon some Pole or Willow because his roots be verie tender small and not creeping farre into the earth likewise we see that the Peach-tree doth grow old and fall away incontinently It beareth a diuers fruit as well in colour and tast as in substance and this diuersitie commeth for the most part of the ground but principally of the husbanding of them And that it is thus the Peach-trees that are planted or grafted vpon Vines bring forth Peaches of a better tast and more solide substance the Peach-tree grafted vpon a Mulberrie-tree bringeth forth Peaches that haue red flesh the Peach-tree grafted vpon a Nut-tree doth beare Peaches with huskes like Nuts whose tree is but small and hath leaues like vnto the Almond-tree and a reddish flower It is true that such a tree may become such a one of it selfe as we see infinitely in France The Peach-tree grafted vpon an Almond-tree beareth Peaches which haue a kernell like vnto the Almond but the rind and the flesh like vnto the Peach There may as much be said of Abricots called of the Latines Praeocia or Armeniaca of Spanish Peaches Medlar-tree bastard Peach-tree and small Peaches which are kinds of trees agreeing much with the Peach all which are verie tender in frost especially the grafted Abricot-tree and it continueth not past halfe the time of the Peach-tree all of them are subiect to be spoyled of the cold snowes frosts and fogges which happen after that they are blossomed but to keepe them from these dangers it will be good to graft them vpon the Quince-tree or Almond-tree all of them will beare great fruit if when they blossome they be watered with Goats milke Concerning the particular vertues of the Peach-tree see more aboue in the nineteenâ—â— Chapter of this Booke The flowers of the Peach-tree are
be fallen at the least three or foure times vpon them because it strengtheneth them greatly to their better enduring and lasting and encreaseth their goodnesse But in anie case they may not be gathered in raine but rather in drie weather being themselues well dried by the Sunne and that in gathering they be not hurt by anie manner of meanes whatsoeuer but to chuse them one after another by cutting them downe with a good knife made fast to the end of a pole or else to make them fall into a cloth spread vnderneath for the receiuing of them and in it separating the rotten spoyled or hurt from amongst the faire sound whole and vnhurt ones that so they may be layed vp to keepe in such sort as wee will declare hereafter in his place Although generally and without saying anie thing of anie particular by way of comparison the Apple be farre fuller of iuice and for the most part more sound than the Peare notwithstanding if one should stand vpon the tast the Peare is commonly more pleasant and better relished and more contenting and agreeing with ones tast eaten in his season raw rosted or preserued than the Apple wherefore I am ashamed that men giue not themselues to plant moe Peare-trees than Apple-trees seeing that besides the reasons alledged the Peare-tree of all other fruit-trees is the fairest streightest and couering no whit so much ground with his shadow as the Apple-tree doth bearing also his fruit almost euerie yeare where the Apple-tree is but a iourney-man bearing one yeare and not another There is a drinke made of Peares called Perrie whereof we will speake as also vineger of wild Peares as hath alreadie beene said of Apples The Peare hath this speciall vertue aboue the rest that the often vse of the kernels should be maruellous profitable vnto such as are troubled with the inflammation of the lungs as also for them that haue eaten manie Mushromes that they may rid their stomacke of so great a load there is nothing better than to eat Peares for the Peare by his weightinesse and astringent iuice maketh the Mushromes eaten and lying in the bottome of his stomacke to descend and fall downe from thence CHAP. XXX Of the Medlar-tree CErtaine it is that the Medlar-tree groweth into a thicke stock it endureth the cold ayre easily and yet delighteth best in a hot or temperate ayre and in a sandie and fat ground It is planted either of roots or of branches and that in Nouember and some sow it of stones in a ground mixt with dung it will beare fruit in great quantitie if there be layed to the foot of it earth mixt with ashes It may be grafted vpon it selfe or vpon the Peare-tree Apple-tree or Quince-tree and that it may be well grafted and with good grafts you must prouide your selfe of those which grow out of the middest of the Medlar-tree and not of the top and it must be grafted in the cleft or highestâ— part of the stocke not in the barke because the leanenesse of the barke would not be able sufficiently to nourish it If you graft it vpon a Quince-tree the fruit will be verie faire and the reason is verie manifest because the stocke which receiueth the graft and nourisheth it is giuen naturally to bring forth a thicke grosâ—e fruit and yet it will yeeld a fairer without all comparison if you graft it vpon the hawthorne vvith which it is joyned in exceeding familiar and friendly league also the fruit that commeth thereof is more beautifull and plentifull it may also be verie fitly grafted vpon any other thorne it selfe being pricklie if you graft the Medlar-tree vpon any other Tree that is not of his owne kind the Medlar will haue either no stones or verie few or else verie little ones If the vvormes assaile the Medlar-tree you must water the stocke with vinegar or throw ashes vpon it Some hold it for certaine that the flesh and especially the small stones of the medlar dried either seuerally and alone or else together made into powder and drunke with white wine wherein hath beene boyled the roots of Parsly doe breake and consume the stone as well of the reines as of the bladder Looke into the second booke in the Chapter of Turneps as concerning this remedie You may make a cataplasme of drie medlars cloues white and red corall and nutmeg all incorporated with the juice of Roses to lay vpon the bellie in the great fluxes of the same and vpon the breast for the spitting of bloud CHAP. XXXI Of the Mulberrie-tree MVlberries grow vpon a certaine kind of Tree which hath a firme wood but a brittle fruit and leaues it buddeth the last of all other Trees after that the cold is ouerpassed vvhereupon it is called by the name of sage or wise wittie and prouident it putteth not forth his leaues till all other Trees be laden with leaues if at the least you hasten not forward his budding by giuing vnto it fresh and new dung in the new of the Moone of Februarie This Tree is of two sorts the one vvhite because of the white Mulberries the other blacke because of the blacke or red Mulberries which it beareth and bringeth forth which though they resemble one another in this that both of them doe put forth their leaues later than any other Tree yet notwithstanding they are vnlike in flowers leaues and other considerations For the blacke doth not onely bring forth a farre fairer and better relished fruit and that of greater aboundance of liquor than the white but it hath besides a thicker stocke and a greater and harder leafe it groweth verie hardly and with much adoe being planted and it is a great while in growing before it become great and therefore is no shame that there are so fâ—w it being so vnapt of it selfe to grow being planted of plants and siences as also propagated and multiplied vnder the earth with the stocke that bare it euen as is vsed to be done with the white ones which yet doe grow infinitely euerie where as well planted of shootes and propagated as sowne both the one and the other doe loue a hot ayre or at the least a temperate a ground that is fat and well battled with dung and labour at the foot and to be kept cleane from mosâ—e and caterpillers and without any dead wood They are planted especially the white either of shoots or of roots or buds and that in October and Nouember even in like manner as the figge-tree In planting of them you must make them deepe and large pits and couer them with earth mixt with ashes they may be grafted vpon the chesnut-tree apple-tree wild peare-tree cornaile-tree elme or white popler and then they will beare white mulberries and this must be in the cleft and vpon the figge-tree in the scutcheon-like graft they may also be grafted vpon themselues and the one vpon the other as the vvhite Mulberrie-tree vpon the white and the blacke
or hang vpon the sides of the vessell as being the verie marke of the perfect and sufficient boiling If you be disposed to put any spice into it as Cinnamon Cloues Nutmegs and Ginger you must doe it in the end of the boiling of them and then also stirre it well about with the spatule After the same manner you may preserue or make Marmalade of Peaches Peares and other fruits Yet there is another Marmalade which is made of Oranges which desireth a great deale of more curiositie in the working and is exceeding pleasant to tast and indeed more wholesome than anie other Marmalade whatsoeuer especially for those which are sicke and weake for it fortifieth the stomacke and encreaseth appetite it expelleth wind and comforteth the vitall spirits This Marmalade of Oranges is made in this manner Take of the fairest and best Oranges you can get not those which are called Ciuill and haue a sweet tast but those which are of a cleere high and bright colour and are sowre in tast then with a very sharpe knife pare away the vpper yellow rinde I doe not meane to the white but so exceeding thinne as is possible taking away as it were but onely the smooth thinne skinne and leauing the Orange as yellow as before onely looking a little more blanke and rough this done you shall by them in faire running water pressing them so downe that they may be all couerted ouer with the water then at the end of euerie fiue houres shift them into fresh water till hauing layne full fiue or six houres in each of them you cannot tast anie biâ—â—ernesse in the water but that it is sweet and pleasant as when it came out of the Foâ—â—taine then you may be assured that they are steept ynough so that then you shall take them forth of the water and drie them with a fine cleane cloth then to euerie pound of Oranges you shall take a pound of refined Sugar well beaten and â—earced and six or eight spoonefuls of Damaske-Rose-water and in the same you shall boilâ— the Oranges till they burst and become like vnto pappe or pulpe which you shall the more occasion by continually stirring them with a spoone or spatule then when they are fully broken ynough you shall take them from the fire and presently strainâ— them through a cleane Strainer into your boxes and so let them coole and stiffen Iâ— this sort you may make Marmalade of Limons Citrons or anie other whole 〈◊〉 whose rinde is bitter or vnpleasant You may also after this manner preserue other Oranges Limons Citrons or anie other such like fruit obseruing not to let them boile vntill they breake but keeping them in a verie moderate and gentle temper If you would make a laxatiue Marmalade such as they vse at Lyons looke into the 26. Chapter of this Booke To make good and excellent Gellie of Quinces cleanse your Quinces that 〈◊〉 verie ripe and yellow taking out of them their kernels them cut them in small quarters without paring of them for the skinne doth encrease the smell whiles you are thus making of them cleane and cutting them in quarters cast them presently into a basin full of vvater for if they be not cast into vvater so soone as they be thus chopt in peeces they vvill become blacke boyle them in a great quantitie of water vntill such time as they be almost become like pap meat vvhen they are sufficiently boyled strayne this water through a new linnen cloth that is good and thicke and that euen all the decoction and so strongly as possibly you can To this decoction thus strained adde the fourth part of fine sugar cause all to boyle vpon a reasonable coale fire so long as till in the end you perceiue it verie neere perfectly boyled then make a small fire that so it may not burne to the sides for that would make the gelly to be of an euill colour and you shall know when it is perfectly boyled if you find it cleauing like glue vnto the oyle and therefore you must then put it in boxes To preserue Walnuts Gather vvalnuts whiles they are small tender and greene vvith their rinde and all and make many small holes therein and after lay them to sleepe in vvater eleuen or twelue dayes more or lesse cleanse then from the skinne that lyeth vpon the shell vvithout shaling of them and boyle them in clarified Sugar a long time still putting vnto them more and more clarified Sugar because the long boyling vvill make great vvaste in the end put them into vessells with cloues ginger and cinnamome but lesse of cloues than of any of the rest because they would make them ouer bitter Another vvay to preserue them is to take greene Walnuts about the moneth of May or of Iune before that their pilling become hard pill them and let them steepe nine dayes more or lesse according as you shall perceiue them to become tender in pure water vvhich must be changed euerie day three or foure times boyle them yet afterward to make them more tender being boyled drie them in the shadow of the Sunne or vvipe them drie with a linnen cloth afterward pricke them with cinnamome and cloues In the end set them a boyling in clarified sugar so long till the sugar be boyled vp to the consistence of a sirope afterward put them in tinne or earthen vessells made for the purpose together vvith the sirope vvherein they were boyled Others doe them otherwise They gather the Walnut whiles it is greene they pricke it vpon a spindle or some such like instrument of wood not of yron for yron vvould make it more blacke and let it steepe in water often changed and then boyle it till it be tender being tender they cast it by and by into verie cleane cold water being cooled they cleanse it from a little skin which sheweth it selfe aboue the shell and drie it with a linnen cloth and finally pricke it about with cloues and cinnamome they put it thus in vessells and couer it with sirope to keepe it in if it happen that after some small time the sirope become too thin then they boyle it againe and put it againe into the vessell this is the way to keepe walnuts alwaies greene according to their naturall colour In steed of sugar or honie to make liquid preserues you may for need vse cute such as we will intreat of in the fiâ—t Booke vvhich cute or boyled vvine is of no lesse sweetnesse and goodnesse than honie or sugar To preserue pills of Cytrons or Oranges chuse great pills of Cytrons or of Oranges or of Assyrian Cytrons cut in foure or six peeces cleanse thâ—m from their inward skin and pippins steepe them in cleare vvater for the space of nine daies changing the water the fifth day vvhen the nine daies are past put them againe in cleare vvater to steepe vntill they become sweet and haue lost their bitternesse and withall appeare cleare
abounding in grasse and fertile The Ozier then which old Writers call Sea-willow or Wicker-tree that is to say apt to bend desireth not to come verie neere to the water but loueth rather to stand vpon the descending side of the valley and the Ozier-plot would end at the sides of the Willow-plot the Ozier-plot must be prickt with a line and prettie small ditches drawne out in it betwixt two lines and euerie slip must be set one from another about fiue foore and a halfe to giue them their spreading It vvill not abide the shadow of any tree but loueth much to haue the fruition of the South-Sunne The tame red Ozier requireth great husbanding and is afraid of frosts and the showres of raine that fall in March and verie cold vvater the vvhite and the greene Ozier vvhich neither bend nor yet defend themselues so well are of a harder nature and grow higher It vvill be good to pricke downe moe of the tame ones than of the other and alwaies to set them out of the shadow and there must be but a little water at their foot the most part of the time vvherefore you must make furrowes by the vvay to keepe and reserue water It must be dressed twice in a yeare to make it grow vvell that is to say about mid-May and towards the end of Nouember presently after that it is gathered being also the time of planting of it It is verie delightsome vnto it to haue the earth raised vvith the spade and stirred and to cast in again the clods vnto the foot some fifteen daies after S. Michael which is the time of gathering them and making of them vp into bottles You must keepe your bottles made of the thicknesse of a fadome fresh coole in some cellar or 〈◊〉 and if the season be drie to vvater them throughout now and then some slip off the leaues in gathering of them thereof to make good ashes others let the leaues fall of themselues and after gather them for the houshold and in Winter-nights by the fire side make the slaues spend their time in cleauing them for to make baskets of some doe not cut the oziers all from the head but such slips as are about the edges of it and leaue the maister-twig to stand vvhole for fiue or sixe yeares when it must be renewed and pricked downe againe for this is the terme of the plant for in all the time following the plant doth nothing but drie and the twig harden CHAP. VIII Of the Willow-plot SOme say that the Willow-plot craueth the like husbandrie that the Oier-plot because the Willow differeth onely from the Ozier in vse bignesse and barke for the Willow-tree is for poles the Ozier as hath beene said for bindings about the vine and caske the Willow is thicke and growing taller the Ozier is smaller and lower the Willow-tree hath a barke of a darke purple colour the Ozier of a yellow straw colour But vvhatsoeuer it is the Willow loueth vvaterie places and is planted of the tops cut off or else of poles the poles are taken from aboue of a good thicknesse but notwithstanding not thicker than the arme and they must be planted and pricked downe in the earth so deepe as they should stand before they touch the firme ground the cut of the top may be of the length of a foot and a halfe and be set in the earth being couered a little That which you shall plant must be cut from the tree verie drie because it will not thriue if it be vvet when it is cut therefore you must shun rainie daâ—es in the cutting of your Willowes The best time of planting the Willow is in Februarie in the beginning or in the end of Ianuarie vvhen as the heart of the great cold is broken vvhich oftentimes hurteth this plant when it is newlie planted It is true that it may be planted at any time after the beginning of Nouember yea it may be then both planted and gathered The plants shall euerie one stand from another sixe foot square and they must be carefully husbanded for the first three yeres as if they were yong vines You shall find a larger discourse of the Willow-tree in the sixth Booke The distilled vvater of Willowes is good to be drunke for the staying of all sorts of fluxes of bloud the decoction of the leaues or the lee made of the ashes of the vvood beeing drunke doth kill bloud-suckers vvhich hang in the throat CHAP. IX Of the Elme MEn of old time did much esteeme the Elme for the vine sake because they married the vine vnto the Elme as also it is yet practised of some vnto this day in Italie but now the Elme is applied to another manner of vse by the husbandman and for that cause vve haue giuen in charge to euery housholder to plant a plot of elmes at the end of his orchard as vvell to make fagots of as to make vvheeles and axle-trees of for his carts and ploughes as also for fire-wood and other easements besides the pleasure that the Elme-tree affordeth all the Sommer long For the planting then of your Elme-plot make choyce of a fat peece of ground and vvithall somewhat moist although this Tree be easie to grow in any kind of ground vvhich you shall digge and cast breaking the clods afterward verie small in so much as that you shall make all the earth as it were dust and in the Spring you shall harrow it and lay it euen afterward you shall sow it verie thicke vvith the seed of elmes vvhich shall by this time become little red hauing beene a long time in the Sunne and yet notwithstanding retayning his naturall substance and moisture and you shall sow it so thicke as that all the earth shall be couered vvith it then cast of fine mould vpon it good two fingers thicke and vvater it a little and couer the earth vvith straw or broken boughes and braunches to the end that vvhat shall come out of the earth may not be deuoured of birds And vvhen the siences shall begin to shew take away the straw and boughes and pull vp the bad vveeds verie carefully vvith your hands in such sort as that the small rootes of the elmes vvhich as yet are tender be not pluckt vp therewithall The waies and squares must be so discreetly cast as that he which is to weed them may easily reach to the middest of them euerie vvay Fâ—r if they vvere too broad then he should be constrained in pulling vp the vveeds to tread the earth vvith his feet by which meanes the shoots might be hurt After vvhen the branches are put vp some three foot high to take them vp from their nurserie and to plant them in another ground and after that to transplant them againe The Elme-tree also may be planted of small branches taken from great etmes and that a great deale better in Autumne than in the Spring time after three yeares passed they must be transplanted
Nutmegs small at both ends and bigge in the middest and it is not much to be 〈◊〉 onely it is a little sooner apt to sinke and you may thereby strike before the fish haue fully bitten others shape their corkes in the fashion of a Whirle or of a little Apple round and flat on both sides and this corke is not amisse to angle with at great fish because it being not so apt to sinke will flote till the hooke be fastened and that the fish beginneth to shoot away with the bait so that the Angler then striking can seldome or neuer loose his labour The next instrument to these which belongeth to the Angle is your Hooks which are of diuers shapes some being bigge and some little and some of a meane betweene both according to the fish at which you angle The best thing to make your hooks of is either old Spanish needles or strong wyar drawne as neere as can be to that hardnesse of temper which being nayled and allayed in the fire you may bend anie way Now the best way to soften your wyar before you worke it is to hold it in the blaze of a candle till it be red hot and then let it coole softly and gently of it selfe or if not thus then roule your wyar vp put it into a charcoale fire till it be red hot and then let it coole at leisure As touching the making of your hookes you shall onely with a paire of plyars bend them to what proportion you please and then with a sharpe file make the point and â—eard as sharpe as may be and batter the lower end flat to which you must warpe your line But because the trouble of making is a little noysome it shall be best to buy them from such as make a liuing or trade thereof and to buy of all sorts euen from the least to the biggest as well double hookes as single the double which is for the Pike or bigger fish and the single which is for the Pearch Trout or middle sort Your double hooks are as it were two hooks of one piece of wyar turned contrarie waies one from the other This double hooke must not be fastened like the single to the line but to a strong wyar ioyned vnto it of a handfull long or more being well wound about and warped with a smaller wyar then to it another wyar of the same length warped as aforesaid and by linkes ioyned together and then the line fastened to the last linke and these are called armed hookes because they desend the hooke from shearing or biting in pieces with the teeth of the greater fish Now for your single hookes you shall thus fixe them vnto their lines Take a length of your twisted haires containing that number which is fit for your hooke and hauing made a loope at one end lay the other end vpon the inside of your hooke then with a silke thred of the colour of your line whip and warpe the hooke round about as thicke close and strait as may be and then running the last end through the whole warpe draw it as fast as you can then cut it away close by the warpe After your â—ooke iâ— thus fastened you shall plumbe your line which is to fasten certaine pieces of lead according to the bignesse of your line about it some being in length about a quarâ—er of an ynch some halfe an ynch and some more according to the bignesse of your corke and the weight of the hooke for these plummets are but to carrie downe the hooke to the bottome neither being so heauie to make the corke sinke nor so light as not with the smallest touch to make the corke dip into the water You shall vnderstand that your first plummet would be a foot from the hooke the rest not aboue an ynch one distant from another not being aboue fiue or seuen at the most yet some Anglers vse nine but it is not much materiall There is in the plumbing of lines three seuerall fashions of plummets vsed as one long another square and the third in a diamond forme yet all to one purpose and the long ones euer the best being smoothly and well fastened to the line for feare of catching hold vpon weeds or other things in the bottome of the water Besides these instruments before spoke of you must hauâ— a Musket bullet which fastened to a line shall serue to sound the depth of the water where you angle that thereby you may plumbe your lines the righter and set your corke in his due place then you shall haue a large ring of lead six ynches at least in compasse and made fast to a small long line through which thrusting your rod and letting the ring fall into the water it will helpe to vnloose your hooke if it be at aniâ— time fastened about weeds or stones which lye in the bottome of the water then you shall haue a smooth board six or seuen ynches square and cut battlement-wise at each end vpon which you shall lap your lines you shall haue a boxe for your hookes a bagge or horne for your baits and another boxe for your flies both aliue or dead you shall haue needles silke thred wax and loose haires then a roule of pitchâ— thred to mend anie cracke in the angle-rod also a â—ile a knife a powch with manie purses and lastly a fine basket of small wands which shall hang by his side to put the fish in which the Angler takes and a small round net fastened to a poles end wherewith you may land a Pike or anie other great fish Againe an Angler must be verie carefull in his apparrell by no meanes wearing light or gaudie sutes which may giue affright to the fish but of the darkest colour you can prouide as russet tawnie or such like and of the plainest fashion without hanging sleeues or any other wauering thing because they are blinks or scarres which afright fish it would be warme for your owne health sake you must also keepe your head and feet drie for the contrarie breeds feuerâ— and other ill sicknesses Touching the seasons best to angle in they are from Aprill till the end of October and the best houres from foure in the morning till nine and from three in the afternoone till fiue in the euening the wind blowing from the North South or West and the ayre temperate as inclined to warmenesse but to speake a little more particularly you shall vnderstand that if the day be darke close and lowring or haue a gentle whistling wind playing vpon the water it is good to angle in or if a fine miâ—zeling dew of raine fall gently without violence the fish will bite the faster also after flouds are gone away and the riuers are come within their owne bankes and the water clearest it is good to angle in Againe for your Summers angling you shall chuse the coolest time of the day for the
it may become fruitfull BVt all grounds vvhich are appointed for seed or corne ground whether they be such as are new broken vp or such as haue oftentimes alreadie borne corne must be enriched and repaired by manure in the beginning of Winter about the eighteeenth of Nouember or the beginning of December vvith Sheepes dung that is three yeares old or else vvith Cow and Horse-dung mingled together for the helping of it to a temperate heat or vvith other manure such as the soyle affoords or the Farmers yard can breed and yet although I speake thus of Nouember and December being a time much vsed vvith vs in France where the vvaies are faire the journey little and the labour easie yet you shall know that you may leade your manure either in the Spring or in Sommer at all such vacant seasons vvhen you cannot follow more necessarie labour at when by vvet or other vveather you cannot lead your hay or corne then you may lead your manure for albeit husbandmen hold that the later you lead your manure the better yet it is not good to driue so long for feare of preuention but to take anie fit time or leisure that is offered you through the whole yeare The dung is to be laid on in hills little lumpes or heapes and that along as you meane to cast vp your furrowes in plowing and after to spread it in his season whether it be rotten dung or marle And it shall chiefely be done in Winter that so the raine and snow dropping and falling downe vpon it it may be ouâ—rcome and caused to reâ—â—nt The vnskilfull and bad husbandman spreadeth it all hot but he lacketh not a faire forrest of weedes as reward of his hastie paines for dung being thus at the first sowne and spread though it be ouercome afterward notwithstanding see what weedes it hath receiued from the beasts houses as being there scattered it yeeldeth for his first fruits backe againe vpon the land and therewithall impaireth much the first crop of corne that shall follow after howsoeuer others following may proue more naturall and plentifull by it and further hindereth both the ground and hinds in â—heir working And this is the cause why the inhabitants of Solongâ—e and Beaux the bâ—st husbandmen cause their Rosemarie to be rotted in Summer and made manure of in Autumne and yet manie times not hasting but deferring the vse for a longer time Furthermore they continue and hold it from father to sonne as a receiued veritie That nothing is more deare and precious than dung taken in his season for the enriching of ground Some take dung as it were hot and halfe rotten at the end of their field but that doth much harme because such dung not being ouercome of the snow raine and other helpes of the heauens but remaining crude or raw doth likewise ramaine vnprofitable especially the first yeare doing nothing it selfe and keeping the better fruit from profiting and comming on as it would though the second yeare it may helpe well and hinder nothing It is true that if you would enrich a poore field that it is better done by the dung newly gathered out of the beasts houses than with such as is old and it would bee spread in the new of the Moone a little before the seed be sowne prouided yet that it be then plowed and turned vnder the earth They seeme vnto me not to doe worst who hauing gathered their corne in August or September and cut it somewhat high doe burne the stubble and other weedes which are in the fields whereby they make a manner of dunging of it by the helpe of raine falling thereupon This standeth in stead of the first sort of enriching of their ground especially in barren and sandie grounds and such as stand vpon a cold moistish clay or such as haue a strong new broken vp ground True it is that they doe not this yearely because of their need to couer their houses and of hauing litter for their beasts And yet those may seeme vnto me to be lesse deceiued who hauing left their stubble long and high in the shearing and cutting of it downe doe presently thereupon bestow an earing vpon such ground and so vnderturne the said stubble and weedes there to let them rot with the Winter raine There is nothing so good as the first manuring and dunging of the ground which if it be neglected it will not recouer it for two yeares space againe so that for â—uch space he shall gather nothing but Rye in stead of Wheat and Fetches for Oates and wild Fetâ—hes for kind and naturall ones It is true that the first is not sufficient of it selfe for to dung and enrich the earth sufficiently and to make fruitfull those that are barren and leane but there must be other meanes vsed for to effect such a worke and amongst them all that seemeth vnto me the principall which is the letting of the field to lye a yeare or two vnoccupied not ceasing the while to husband it both Winter and Summer as also the first time when you would haue it beare to sow it with Lupines or rather with Pease prouided that the ground be not ouer-cold for then it would profit those Pulse but a little And if all these meanes should fall out to be insufficient it will be good to spread Quicklime vpon the plowed ground in the end of Februarie for besides that it enricheth a ground greatly it cleanseth it also and killeth all bad and dangerous weedes whereupon it commeth to passe that the haruest after it is more plentifull than after anie other dung that a man can inuent to vse Furthermore if the ground be light it will be good to cause some water to ouerflow the corne for the space of ten daies or thereabout which will likewise stand in stead of a manuring or dunging The dung or marle is to be spred in the increase of the Moone about the eighteenth of Nouember after such time as the rested ground hath passed his time of recreation but if it bee in such grounds as wherein the chiefest kindes of corne are to bee sowne then they must be dunged presently after the end of Autumne that so the ground may haue leasure to receiue the raine therewithall which will serue to help the seedes the better to rot thereby prouiding an aid for the weakenes of the earth In like sort if this should be for Rie or for Messing the ground would be dunged in the heart of Winter or a little before notwithstanding that some doe stay for the moneth of March that it may presently after receiue the showers of Aprill which may do much good towards the later end of September at which time they sowe in fine dust and windie drowthes looking for the first raine and the puâ—rifaction to be wrought by the same But howsoeuer the case standeth seeing it is better to manure the ground than not to manure it so
they haue a slipperie and moist â—round fit to make pots of for necessarie businesse they plow vpon a causey and as it were vpon an Asses backe and in euerie fiue furrowes they hold it meete to cast one high ridge that is verie large and made also like vnto a caâ—sey that it may both receiue the raine water and that which springeth out of the earth which is alwayes moist and that because of two Riuers lying vpon the one side and on the other and doe moisten and water the grounds there continually vnderneath And for the same purpose which is also practised in small Beaux as in Long-boyau Val de Gallie Val-boyau Niuernois and Bourbonnois they make at the end of their ground certaine rises of sufficient height where betwixt the said rise and arable ground there is a ditch or pit made within it after the fashion of a long fatt to receiue the waters which runne along after great raine for otherwise they would rot and smother the corne This troubleth such as trauell those countries exceedingly and this is the cause of the name whereby they are called the Grashoppers of Brie Insomuch as that they cannot tell how to doe so well as in a rainie day to goe and pull vp Darnell Dane-wort and other ouer-spreading weedes which else they could hardly ouercome being a kind of earing of the ground called of auncient Writers the freeing of Corne-ground from weedes hauing further by such aboundance of raine this scath done vnto their Come as that it is layd bare now and then yea and that though it be neuer so well harrowed and the earth of it selfe strong and mightie There is no need of anie such rises or ditches in the parts of France truly and properly so called neither in the Isle thereof nor in the flat and free Countrey of Blairie as Long-boyau and Labeaâ—ce the verie Barne and Store-house of France the Countries of Oye Sangterre or else of Berry and free Poictou And all grauellie Countries may be well excused and freed from all manner of such inconuenience as appeareth by manie places of Picardie and Solongne euen vnto Percheron so that they make their furrowes close and neere one to another as is wont to be done in low grounds and valleyes The ground must also be plowed in a fit and conuenient time to the end that it may become fruitfull Wherefore the carefull Husbandman shall neuer plow his ground whiles it is wet for running through it with the plough at that time it will doe nothing but runne vpon heapes especially in tough and clammie grounds as also in those which be hard or growing and putting forth their fruit in as much as this maketh them so sad and close that it is impossible to make them fine and small mould againe Likewise it is an absurd thing euer to goe about to put the plough into a dyrtie and myrie ground because it is nothing fit to stirre or deale anie manner of way withall before it become drie and so vnfit as that though you could doe what you would vnto it with the plough yet there is no casting of anie seed into it And if it should fall out that there were anie Tree or Vinâ—-plant in the ground you must passe it ouer in lifting vp the plough from off the shootes which come from the rootes at all times when you perceiue your selfe to be vpon them or 〈◊〉 you shall cut them off with a hatchet rather than bruise and breake them with the culter for feare of breaking the culter it selfe and putting the Oxen or Horse to 〈◊〉 and paines CHAP. X. That the â—attell vsed to plow withall doe differ according to the manner and custome of the Countries IN rough and tough grounds as also in free and kindly grounds as hath been said where there are required as needfull three Horses to a plough of fiftie foot but not so coupled and spanged as they be in Countries where they vse to plow with Mares Oxen Asses or Buffles you must after the first caring breake the clods with the rowler and lay it flat square and plaine with a planke In leane grauellie and weaker grounds you shall not stand in need to be at such cost either with horse or man for it is not requisite that you should draw so deepe a draught in the earth and againe the husbandmen of such Countries haue sooner finished and made an end than others and yet doe labour with more leisure because of the ayre and climate of their Countrey Yet this is but a particular fashion in France therefore to speak more generally both according to that and other forraine soyles you shall vnderstand that there be two principall causes to make a man plow with Horses although he may haue Oxen at his pleasure The one is when he liueth in a verie wet and dyrtie soyle where the ground of it selfe yeeldeth forth such a continuall moisture that the finallest trampling or treading thereupon bringeth it to a verie myre in this case it is best to plow with Horse because they draw euer directly one after the other and tread euer in the furrow without annoying the land and goe also much more light and nimbly than other cattell whereas Oxen going double and treading vpon the land would foyle it and make it so myrie that it would be good for no purpose The other when a man liueth farre from his necessarie accommodations as from his fuell his fencing his timber and other such like necessaries which he must forcibly vse euerie yeare in this case he must euer keepe his teame of Horses because they are fittest for trauell and long iournies doing them euer with the greatest speed and least losse whereas the Oxe being a heauie beast would soone surfet and are indeed so vnapt for the same that a man can hardly doe them greater iniurie Now for the number of Horses to be vsed in the plow it must be according to the greatnesse of the labour and the strength of the cattell for in the heauie and stiffe clayes sixe are euer few ynough either to fallow with or to plow the Pease-earth with and fâ—ure for anie other ardor in the lighter sands foure is sufficient at all times and three vpon anie necessitie As for the mixt soyles if they be binding they will craue as much strength as the clayes but if they be loose the same that serues the light sands will serue them also And herein is to be noted that the stoned Horse is euer better for the draught than either the Mare or Gelding yet all good and meet for seruice Againe they worke with the Asse and the Oxe as in Aâ—uergne with the young Mule and in Romaine and Champaigne in Italie with the Buffle whereas of a truth the labour of Oxen is not readie nor so quicke of dispatch in the time of necessitie and for to remedie and helpe this mischiefe you must begin your worke with the Oxen
little that so the corne may not be too close and fast couered 〈◊〉 the â—oot which would cause it to die also and rot away bringing forth nothing This worke and dutie is not of small weight and moment in as much as oftentimes the corne is choaked by weedes and bowed to the earth by their too much loftinesse taking their opportunitie of some beating wind or raine Moreouer you must not be abashed if the greater part of the eares proue emptie without hauing anie thing at all in them and the other not to come to perfection and ripenesse Againe when the good corne is accompanied with Fetches Darnell and other weedes the bread is not onely made more vnpleasant lesse sauourie wholesome and discoloured but also it commeth not to the one halfe of good corne which is not mingled with these filthie weedes insomuch as that three load of such corne after the winnowing of it doe not yeeld two of pure and cleane corne And which is worse the field where such seedes are scattered doe not bring forth halfe so much as those which are charged with nothing but well cleansed and winnowed corne CHAP. XIIII Of mowing or shearing THe last labour and toyle for the which all the other in the whole yeare going before was taken is mowing and cutting downe of the corne which must be attended after that it once becommeth ripe which will appeare by the turning of the colour into a light yellow throughout in all parts alike and before that the graine be altogether hardened and turned red that so it may grow thicker in the weathering and barne rather than standing in the fields For it is most certaine that if it be cut downe in good and due season it will grow bigger and encrease afterward whereas otherwise if you stay the mowing or shearing of it downe till it be throughly drie the greatest part of the corne will fall to the ground in shearing of it and will become a pray for the birds and other beasts If there happen anie violent storme or whirlewind it will lay it flat with the earth You must of all other times make choice of the wane of the Moone or betwixt Moone and Moone to cut downe your corne therein if that you would haue your corne to keepe well and the best houre is the breake of the day when it is full of deaw The manner of shearing is either to cut it in the middest of the straw to the end you may haue stubble to couer your countrey houses as also to heat the Ouen to bake bread in such countries as are vnprouided of wood as in Beauce or else to cut it within a foot of the ground for the greater prouision of straw which will serue afterward to make Mats for Beds or Litter for Horses and other Cattell and which is yet the greatest profit of all to imploy about the making of Mats for the vse and behoofe of the householder in his chambers That which remaineth shall either be cut downe with Sickles or Hedging-bills made fast to the end of a great staffe to make a fire withall for the Winter time or else it shall be burned in the fields themselues to make dung by the means of raine falling thereupon in grounds especially that are sandie or standing of a stiffe Potters clay or which haue a strong mould And although this be the French manner of shearing of Wheat or Rie for of these graines there are no difference yet in other countries they vse to sheare after the Sunne is risen and at such time as the corne is most drie holding as doubtlesse it is most probable that the binding of the corne together in sheaues whilest the wet deaw is vpon it doth either rot or make it mildew quickly As for the stubble it is much better to mowe it downe with Sythes than cut it vp with Sickles both because you may goe neerer to the ground and also saue much labour in doing your worke sooner and better The corne being cut shall be gathered together and made into sheaues and after led and carried into the barne by the Farmer which must be seated in a sufficient high place that so it may receiue the wind somewhat readily and yet not that I would haue the wind when it commeth to be able to goe against the houses or gardens for besides the annoyance which the small chaffe would worke in the eyes of the people and that before they should perceiue it it would furthermore hurt and much annoy the gardens because that by the same sticking to the leaues of the hearbes and trees as also to their fruits in Autumne it would drie them and make them apt and easie to be burnt by the heat of the Sunne CHAP. XV. Of threshing Corne. FOr the last labour of the Husbandman there remaineth nothing more but to thresh out the Corne for to sow it againe or for to store vp and lay aside in the Garner and this not sooner than till three months passed after the Haruest for although the Corne should be gathered of full ripenesse yet still it goeth forward to more perfection as it lyeth in the Barne The Gascoines notwithstanding fearing that Corne left long in the sheaues should not onely take a great heat but grow full of Butterflies Mothes and small Woâ—mes which are wont to spoile it cause the sheaues to be dried three whole daies in the Sunne and that in the field where they were mowen and afterward thresh it in the same place carrying lastly the Corne so threshed into Garners so that by that means they stand not in need of Barnes to carrie their sheaues into and there to keepe them This is also a custome vsed both in Ireland Spaine and the Islands neere vnto Spaine but I cannot commend the husbandrie for it is most certaine that except Corne may take a kindly sweat in the Mowe it is neuer wholesome nor will yeeld flower in that aboundance which otherwise it would do Besides Corne is euer more safely kept in the eare than in the Garner and take much lesse puâ—rifaction Whence it comes that your great Corn-masters and hoarders of Corn when they want roome to lay their Corne in will thresh vp their oldest store and then keepe it in the chaffe till they haue occasion to vse it being of this mind that whilest it lyes therein it will euer keepe sweet and it is a most certaine rule for nothing is a greater preseruer of Corne than the owne chaffe except it be the care it selfe in which Nature hauing at first placed it of necessitie it must euer be safest therein Wherefore I would haue all good husbands to bring their Corne home into the Barne first and there to let it rest three weekes or a moneth at least in which time it will haue taken the full sweat and then to thresh it as occasion shall serue And herein is also to be noted that if you
it cowes-milke goats-milke or the juice of sweet almonds with sugar The Flemmings vse to make pap-meat thereof which they loue exceeding vvell The Muscouites distill the water of oats and vse it for want of wine and such water heateth and maketh drunke no lesse than Wine Thus much of the French opinion of Oats vvho are indeed but halfe knowing or not so much in the excellencie of the graine but to come to their knowledge who haue the full proofe and triall thereof you shall vnderstand that it is a graine of no lesse worth and estimation than any of the other and questionlesse may much lesse be banished a Common-wealth than of the other in as much as where none of the other will grow there this will you shall then know that Oats will grow in any soyle whatsoeuer as either in fertile or barren hot or cold drie or moist nor doth it aske much labour for in fertile soiles it wil grow with one earing as namely at seed-time which is euer about the end of March or beginning of Aprill it will grow also after any other graine as after wheate rye barley or pulse but it is best sowing it after barley or pulse because to sow it after Wheat or Rie would pill the ground too much and make it barren too soone In barren grounds it will grow with two arders or three at the most as one at Midsommer another at Michaelmas and the third at seed-time or else at Michaelmas and at seed-time onely it must be sowne vnder furrow like barley in loose moulds and after two or three arders but aboue furrow in fast earths and where it hath but one arder onely it must be well harrowed according to the strength of the mould that is to say with wooden-teeth in loose moulds and vvith yron teeth in fast moulds they must be cropt as soone as they turne colour and appeare a little yellow for else they vvill shed their graine as being the loosest corne of all other These Oats are of diuers most excellent vses both for men and also for cattell as first for Oatmeale which is made in this sort as soone as your Oats haue beene thresht and vvynowed you shall lay them on your kilne and vvith a soft fire drie them verie vvell and then carrie them to the milne either the Wind-mill the Water-mill or the Horse-mill and there let the Miller cut them and hull them but by no meanes crush them to fine meale but onely driue the cleane kernell from the courser hull then vvith a fanne or a gentle vvind vvinnow the emptie hulls from the Corne and if so be that you find they be not all cleane hulled then passe them through the mill againe and then vvynow them againe and thus doe till the nulls be cleane taken off vvhich hulls are a verie good prouander for horses as for the Groats vvhich is vsually called common or course Oat-meale they are excellent to make porridge of all kinds and for puddings of all sorts or for any other pap-meat or panada whatsoeuer it is also an excellent food at Sea being boyled in Water or otherwise vsed after the manner of grauell This oat-meale being ground into â—ine meale like other corne maketh diuers kinds of verie good bread chiefely where other corne is not to be had If you mixe the fine meale of Oates with Wheat meale it maketh verie daintie Oat-cakes either thicke or thinne and is of great estimation where they are knowne These Oates being maulted as you mault Barley make a verie good mault and that mault both verie good Ale and Beere only a little more sharpe than that which is made of Barley Lastly those Oates are of all other foods the best that may be for the feeding of horse or fatting of cattell they are also good to seed all sorts of Pulleine especially Geese Swannes and all manner of water-fowle which take much pleasure therein Millet MIllet as those know verie well which dwell in the Countrey Bearne Bigorre and Armignac after that it hath beene steeped some certaine time in water would be sowne either morning or euening in the coole thereof in light and small moulded ground and it groweth not only in grauelly ground but also in sand when the country it wet and moist but in anie case it would not be sowne in drie grounds and such as consist of Fullers earth or are marly neither must it be sowne before the Spring for it requireth heat wherefore it may conueniently be sowne in the end of the moneth of March or else somewhat later that so it may enioy the benefit of the dew a long time It putteth not the husbandman to anie great charges for a little seed will sowe a great deale of ground So soone as it is sowne it must be pressed downe with a hurdle of Wickers well laden to keepe it from the heat of the Sunne in the springing vp thereof for otherwise the seed would grow vp and drie away through the vehâ—mencie and heat of the Sunne-beames Notwithstanding it would be oft and verie well weeded for the â—ooting vp of all manner of ill weedes especially the blacke Millet So soone as it may be spied peeping forth of the earth and before that by the operation of the Sunne the corne doe shew it must be pluckt vp by the hand and be laid in the Sunne afterward to drie and lastly shut vp in some place where it may be kept and being thus ordered it lasteth longer than anie other manner of corne Millet doth good vnto the fields wherein it is gathered in this respect namely that wormes will not hurt the corne that shall be sowne there presently after anie whit at all seeing they will leaue the graine that is sowne and cleaue to the straw of the Millet In the time of dearth they vse to make bread of Millet but vnpleasant ynough especially when it is setled and the inhabitants of Gascoâ—gne and Campaigne doe vse a pappe-meat made of Millet with milke and that not of the pleasantest taste as well the bread as the pappe-meat made of Millet is of small nourishment besides that they make obstructions and that because Millet is cold in the first degree and drie in the third Millet fried with salt and flowers of Camomill and put into a bag doth serue against the paines of the collick and wringings of the bellie To keepe Purgatiues as Rubarb Agarick yea and flesh also from rottennesse and corruption it is good to burie them in Millet Sesame SEsame would be sowne in a blacke ground that is somewhat rotten and moist It groweth also in sandie and fat grauellie grounds or in mingled grounds and it is verie fruitfull euen no lesâ—e than Millet or Pannicke It is true that the good householder needeth not trouble his braine much with the sowing of it seeing it is apt to make the ground altogether barren and yet is good for nothing except the oyle that is pressed out of it and
whose mould is driest loosest blackest and quickliest ripe with little earing as namely with two ardors at the most which vvould be in October the first and the last in March which is the best and most conuenient time for sowing Hempe must bee exceedingly well harrowed and clotted and the mould must bee made as small as dust for the seed is verie tender at the first sprouting but being once gotten aboue the earth it ouâ—groweth all other weeds whatsoeuer and out of its owne nature it doth choake and destroy them whence it comes that hempe neuer needeth any weeding it must bee diligently and carefully kept and tended after the first 〈…〉 appeare aboue the earth from birds for the seede is so sweet and so much desired of all small birds that without great and diligent care they will not leaue you any in the earth Now for the best time of gathering your hempe it is acording to the common custome of house-wiues about Saint Margarets day being towards the latter end of Iuly But more particularly you shall vnderstand that it is best pulling your hempe for the pill as soone as it doth begin to turne yellowish and the leaues to hang downeward looking vnto the earth but if for seed then not before the seed looke blacke and bee readie to shed hempe must euer bee pulled vp by the rootes and first sprâ—ad thinne vpon the earth then afterwards bound vp in bundles which they do call bayts then it must bee câ—rryed to the water to ripen of which water the running streame is the best and the standing pond is the worst yet it must bee done with great heed for hempe is very poysonous and it doth not onely infect the waters but it doth also poyson much fish Hempe must lye three dayes and three nights couered in the water then it must bee cleane washt out of the water and afterwards brought home and dried either in the Sunne or vpon the kilne There bee some house-wiues which either for sloath or for want of a conuenient place to water in doe ripen their hempe vpon the ground by suffering it to lye at the least fifteene nights vpon the sâ—me taking the dewes which do fall Morning and Euening and other raine by which it ripeneth prouided that it bee turned euerie day once but this manner of ripening is not good for besides that it is vnkindly and doth oftentimes cause the hempe to bee rotten it also maketh the hempe to be very blacke and foule so that it doth neuer make white cloth After the ripening and drying of your hempe you shall brake it in brakes which are made of wood for the same purpose and this labour would euer as neere as you can bee done in the Sunne-shine after the braking of hempe you shall swingle it then beate it then heckle it and if you intend to haue verie fine cloth of it you shall after the first heckling beate it againe and then heckle it through a finer heckle then spinne it after warpe it and lastly weaue it Thus much for the hempe which is vsed for to make cloth withall but for such as shall bee preserued for cordage or the roper you shall onely after the ripening pill it and then either sell or imploy it Hempe seed is verie good to make hennes lay many egges and that in the depth of Winter and greatest coldnes of the same Many doe burne the thickest rootes of the male hempe and of the same so burnt and made into powder do make gunne-powder The iuice or decoction of the greene herbe being strongly strained and powred in some place where there are earthwormes doth cause them to come forth by and by likewise being dropt into the eares it causeth the worms or other beastes which shall bee gotten in thither to come out presently and this wee haue learned of fishermen which by this wile doe take wormes to serue them for their hookes Hempe seede must neither bee eaten nor drunke because it sendeth vp many fumes vnto the braine which will cause the same to ake and therefore women do greatly transgresse the rules of Physicke which giue this bruised seed in drinke to such as are troubled with the falling sicknes or head-ach This is a thing to be wondred at in hempe that seeing there are two sorts of it the male and the female yet the female beareth not the seed but the male Line LIne must not bee sowne in any ground but where there riseth great profit and this followeth and is caused by reason of the seede which impaireth all sorts of grounds verie much and for that cause it must bee sowne in a verie fat ground and such a one also as it reasonably moist In any case the ground where line-seed is sowne must bee curiously handled and clensed and with manifold earings plowed and turned ouer so oft and so long as that it become like dust and furthermore the good hus-wife must be carefull when the line is growne to free it from being 〈◊〉 with the weed vsing to wind about it and which of some is called 〈◊〉 and that not once but oft to the end that in gathering the seed in beating it with beetles heckling and spinning of it such filth may not remaine among the tow It must be gathered when it is ripe and when the colour of it groweth yellow and after layd vp in some drie place that so it may bee defended from the raine and dew which are vtter enemies vnto it when it is drie it must be thresht as soone as may be to the end that the mice eat it not with wooden mallets to get the seed out of it and presently after that it shal be caried to the water about the change of the Moone that it may lie therein three or foure daies in Iuly or August till it become soft and tender to the end that the pilling or barke thereof may the more easily be seperated from the stalkes for the making of cloth When it is drawne out of the water it must bee laied on a heape all round but two or three fadomes broad loading it aboue with boords and stones and after that spred in the Sunne to the end it may drie the better The finest line which is without seed notwithstanding it bee the least and lower of growth than the rest is the best being soft and fine after the manner as it were of silke whereas that which is long and thicke is also more rough and boysterous in spinning You shall make verie fine and white sowing threed of your sine flax in this sort Let it be watered in running water fiue or six daies in Iuly or August in the change of the Moone so soone as it is drawne out of the water spread it in the Sunne that it may drie neuer casting it into any heapes for that which is laid vpon heapes after the comming of it out of the water that it may take a heat and being pressed downe to
the greatest of the branne is taken away then there is vsually made therâ—of citizens bread Againe when as the bran is cleane taken away they vse to make thereof small white loâ—â—es and when as the grossest part of the white flower is taken away and nothing left but the very fine they vse to make chapter bread wafers tarts cakes and other workes of pastrie Some also do make bread as it were of pure bran and therin likewise sometimes to be found straws and chaffe and that for to feed dogs withall The fittest place for the baking of bread is the ouen because it admittâ—th the heat of the fire equally and indifferently on all sides vpon the harth or gridyron the one part of the loafe baketh and the other remaineth raw and vnder the ashâ—â— it is not so well baked The fire that is for to heat the ouen must bee fagot wood or billeâ— or shiuerâ— of thicke wood that hath no stinking or vnsauoury smell or for want of wood straw or stubble as is vsed in Beauce or of thicke reeds according as the countrie will most conueniently afford The bread must be baken in the ouen in a good sort and meane and with a reasonable heate for ouer-great a heat would scorch the crust that is aboue and so 〈◊〉 it selfe of inward entrance to the causing of the said inward part to remaine raw and paste-like a lesser heat than is meet and conuenient would let it remaine all raw after it is baken enough it shall bee drawne forth out of the ouen and laid to rest and abide in a place that is neither stinking nor vnsauourie nor yet infected with any euil aire for the hote bread doth easily draw and sucke in any vehemous or corrupt qualitie of the aire In moist places bread doth soone become hoarie and sustie and in too drie a place it becommeth mouldy and ranke The good husband that is right carefull of his profit to the end that his bread may last the longer and that they may eate the lesse of it doth set it in some celler or place which is vnder the ground or in some other place which is moist and his rie bread in some place neere vnto the fire harth The bread made of other sorts of corne as also of certaine pulse BArley bread must bee made of the best barley that may be found or gotten and not of the meale whole and entire as it commeth from the mill but of that part of it which hath beene â—emâ—ed and cleansed from his grosse bran It is true that the bread will be very drie very apt to crumble and of a sower tast so that it would be better to mingle amongst this meale some meale of pure wheate or mesâ—in The maner of seasoning it with leuen as also of kneading and baking of it is no other than is vsed in wheate After the same manner is bread made of Secourgion but neither the one nor the other is fit for the eating either of the Lord of the fâ—rme or of his farmer but rather for the seruants and that especially in the time of dearth for their better contentation although there bee no great store of nourishment to bee looâ—ed foâ— from the same After this sort also they make bread of oates which is â—eldome or not at all eaten except it be in the time of extreame famine for indeed it 〈◊〉 very vnpleasantly Bread may bee made of millet as also of panicke but such as is verie drie and brittle and yet the Gascoines vse it very commonly and especially the Biarnoyes who for this cause are called millet mangers of their neighbours dwelling 〈◊〉 The Biarnoyes do make hastie pudding after this manner They take three or 〈◊〉 pounds of the meale of the millet for the morning and as much for the euening they set it vpon the fire in a Kettle whereinto there is powred fiue or sixe pints of water thus they let them boile together vntill such time as that it swell vp to the top of the kettle and then taking it from off the fire they stir it well about with a round sticke so long as vntill the paste be very throughly broken and made all one then afterward taking it out of the kettle they diuide it with a thred into many peeces and eate it in that sort with cheese or with thin salted milke Bread is likewise made of rie but such as eateth very clammie whereof wee haue spoken in the discourse of rie for the taking away of the clamminesse thereof it will be good to mingle barley flower with it or rather wheate flower or else to take the flower of the rie meale it will be of a wax colour if yet while it is hot you lay vpon it some heauie meale It is vsed likewise to make bread of rice beanes spelt corne and many other sorts of corne and pulse and that after the same sort that wheat corne bread is made In like manner the industrie and indeauour of the baker may be the cause of the making of many sorts of bread as that which is called the finest bread or Court bread which is the lightest of all the rest and which is very exactly kneaded full of leuen and of a well raised paste Bisket bread which is of three sorts one that is made of rie another that is made of maslin or barley or oates or of all the foresaid mixt together fit for Saylers to liue withall which vndertake long voyages by sea or for such as are besieged within some â—ort or holde because it will keepe a long time this kind of bread hath not much leuâ—n in it the second kind of bisket is made of pure wheat without any mixture fit for the poore that are infected with the pox to make their diet bread vpon the third sort is made of the flower of meale and it is vsuall to put to the paste thereof sugar cynamome pepper or ginger and sometimes annise seeds and it serueth to eate in the time of abstinence as Lent and such other At Reyns they vse to make spiced bread with honie and a little quantitie of pepper or cynamome The Bakers which belong vnto the Court make their bread with milke CHAP. XXI Of the Pantrie IT is most certaine that bread is the chiefest thing whereby man is fed and nourished and that it is so we see that other victuals how pleasant soeuer they be vnto the tast how vvel soeuer prepared and set out with good sauces do for the most part of them cause very oft a distast and loathing of themselues but onely bread holdeth out without dislike growing therupon whether it be in sicknes or in health it is the thing which appetite doth last of all refuse and first like of and receiue againe in time of sickenes in health it is the beginning and ending of our meat very pleasant and delightsome with all kind of meats In like manner of a certainty
eies in their branches which haue not beene iniured or hurt by the hardnesse of weather and which are neither young not old but in their chiefest strength and middle age or not much past Of such vines must your branches be gathered in the increase of the new Moone somewhat late of the day in the afternoone not of such as grow most low not yet of such as grow highest but of the middle growth and such as are round smooth and fiâ—me hauing many eies and about three fingers of old wood together with the new It must be planted presently that so it may take the sooner in the earth whiles yet it is in life or else presently as soone as it is cut off to wrap it in its owne earth not tying it hard as also if you would keepe it a long time to put it in a vessell full of earth well closed and stopped perfectly on euery side that so the aire may not any way wrong it or else if it bee to bee carried into any far countrie to sticke it in an onion or wilde garlicke and then before planting of it to steepe it in water especially if the ground from whence it is gathered be drie by nature The vine-dressers of the duchie of Burgundie before the planting of crossets do cause them to be steeped one whole day or a night in running water and find by experience that the said crossets do take more easily Others cause the branch to be set and planted by and by that so it may take the sooner CHAP. VI. The manner and way to plant Vines THe first casting of the earth for to plant the vine must bee done in the Spring or Sommer in which first digging or casting of it the ground must bee cleansed of all superfluities as rootes weeds and stones it must be digged and renewed oftentimes to the end that the earth which is vppermost may bee brought vnto the bottome and that in the bottome may bee turned vppermost to moisten and refresh that which is drie and to heat and drie that which is moist thick and afterward made euen and cast into many furrows pits of a foot and a half breadth depth till you come to the hard stone in the bottomâ— and the knights or guids of the one side the other of such a thicknes aboue as may aunswere to the depth of the furrow which yet must be made hollower in a rough and crabbâ—d ground than in sandie flintie or wet ground in the bottomes of the sides of which furrowes there may bee put stones so that they bee no bigger than a loafe and couered with earth for the cooling of the vines in the heat of Sommer as also to the end that vpon great raine the water may find passage and not stand at the rootes of the plants Whereupon your ground being well laid with stones in this sort and rested and setled after the first dressing of it and being in the time of this rest turned oâ—er and wrought for the taking away of the couch grasse and other weeds you must spie out some calme and quiet weather to plant in according to the place where you shall bee and the nature of your ground prepare make readie sharpen and cut off the root and hairie threeds of your young plants and fit them well for the South Sunne plant them in the middest of the furrow in the plaine flat where your foot vseth to â—read and one right ouer against another and after the maner of a Burgundian crosse for to make them after that they are couered with earth and old made dung or with the earth which hath beene cast out of the furrowes and thrown on the ridges leape to the two sides of the furrowes towards the ridge of either part for so they beare more fruit and this is called the double plant which must bee vnderstood of the plants onely which are so planted in doubt that if one doe die the other may escape or that and if they both take the one of them may bee taken vp to put in place where others haue failed For howsoeuer the plant set of a crosset may make the better foot and root yet for certaine it is harder to take than the marquot although the marquot be not so lasting and of such continuance in as much as the crossets do put forth rootes of themselues Furthermore you must cut off the greatest wood and most knottie from the vine stocke which you know to bee the fairest and most fertile and it must consist both of old and new wood It continueth foure yeares without fruit and on the other side without some misfortune it is seene to continue thirtie yeares in his vigour and lustinesse After it is cut off it must be cut fit not leauing aboue three or foure ioints at the most two wherof in planting it may stand aboue ground and if it haue put forth any eielet you may rub it off with your finger or nip it off with your naile If you make lesser furrowes you must plant them after the fashion called â—n godeau after the Angeuin fashion setting euery one distant from another two foot one marquot betwixt two knights or guides as is vsually obserued in planting of stocks in the nurcerie of fruit trees and after that to leaue it foure yeares in the same state that it may be laid downe againe when it is growne that is some two or three yeres after it hath put forth strong and able wood in such sort as that to vines so planted there need no propping or vnder bearing for the chiefe and principall foot as it is in trees doth sufficiently beare vp the siences putting forth of the same In Languedoc and Prouence they plant them in this sort but they pricke them downe a great deale further off one from another and set an oliue tree betwixt euery two which nothing hindereth by his shadow either their growth or the Sunne from hauing full power vpon them And yet they leaue not so but as is vsed in Italy they set in euery furrow fiue or sixe rowes of pulse or wheat and yet so as that there groweth no intanglement betwixt them and the vine as not being set or planted amongst them and yet they let not to plant the oliue trees in corne fields prouiding as hath beene heretofore said that the shadow thereof doe not any thing hinder the growth of the graine The marquot would be planted as soone as it is raised from his stocke with his whole furniture of twigs and that alone in the middest of the furrow because of his small sprigs seeing there is no doubt made of the taking of it againe it must haue a bed and spreading place of great length it groweth sooner as hath beene said than the crosset but in like manner as the grafted one it indureth the least and shortest time of all the rest After that you haue planted your crossets
of the Vine For in America Florida and the new-â—ound Countries there are great store of Vines growing plentifully and in great aboundance without any art or industrie of men although the vse of wine be as yet vnknowne to the inhabitants of those Countries Plato in his Câ—atylus saith That wine is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say iudgement consideratenesse and aduisednesse because it furnisheth the intellectuall part with iudgement and aduise because by his quicknesse it restoreth the spirits whereby it strengtheneth the mind as well as the bodie as Mnestheus hath verie well reported of it Some likewise say That the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say profit and vtilitie because it is infinitely profitable The Latines call it Vinum â— vi by reason of the violence it offereth to the spirit of man when it is taken out of measure The cause likewise why the old Writers called it Temetum was because the immoderate vse thereof holdeth captiue and corrupteth the mind that is to say the vnderstanding We will define wine to be a iuice extracted and pressed out of ripe grapes purified and fined contained in vessels sit for the receiuing of the same conuenient and agreeable vnto mans life and therefore the liquors of the grape newly pressed out is not to be called wine because it is not fined neither yet doth veriuice deserue the name of wine because it is pressed out of grapes as yet not ripe The temperature of Wine and of the liquor newly pressed out of the grapes THe new pressed iuice of the grape is of temperature hot in the first degree but wine is hot in the second degree yea in the third if it be old it is likewise of drinesse proportionable to his heat It is true that according to the regions grounds inclination and disposition of the yeare and such other differences which doe alter and change his temperature very much it falleth out to be sometimes more sometimes lesse hot The wines that Spaine Italie Languâ—doc the Countrey of Narbone in France Gascoigne and other hot Countries doe bring forth proue hot and drie in the end of the second yea in the beginning of the third degree especially when the constitution of the yeare falleth out to be hot and drie and when they are of a middle age But such wines as grow in grounds about Paris or other Countries vvhich draw toward the Westerne or Northerne quarter doe scarcely fall out to proue hot in the beginning of the second degree no not in a hot and drie yeare and though they be growne to a middle age as not hauing passed the age of the first yeare For when the yeares fall out cold and moist all these kinds of wines for the most part growing in these Countries become greene and raw and for the same cause called greene wines and those so weake that hardly may they be iudged to be hot in the first degree and the yeare expired and gone about their heate being likewise expired and spent they either become altogether sower or hauing lost their smell and taste proue to be naught and corrupted Whereupon that which the old writers haue deliuered concerning the temperatures and qualities of old Wines cannot bee proued true of such Wines as grow in these countries wherein the greatest part of French Wines within three or sixe moneths or at the furthest by the end of the yere grow to the â—ull top and perfection of their goodnesse whereas on the contrarie such as grow in hot countries and become themselues more hot will not bee at the best before the fifth sixth yea before the tenth yeare which if it bee so you must thinke that the sinewes and other senses of the bodie doe receiue most harme by old Wines which grow in hot and drie countries and that they are the lesse offended and hurt of the old Wines which grow in this our French soile which is more cold In this countrie new Wine being sufficiently boyled vp and fined as it is more pleasant to the tast so it is more hot cleane contrarie to that which groweth in hot countries Dioscorides writeth that old vvine for as much as it is hotter doth hurt them very much which feele some weakenesse in some of their inward parts but wee cannot say the like of our vvine vvhen it is old but rather of our vvine when it is new for the same reasons Wherefore it followeth that the opinion of Dioscorides and diuers other Physitians touching the heat and temperature of old wines is to bee vnderstood of vvines that grow in countries that are more hot and not of such vvines as if they bee daintie and delicate vvines vvill attaine the height of their goodnesse and summe of their perfection in sixe or eight moneths or at the furthest by the end of the yeare in such sort as that the same being ended they waxe sower yea if they be right noble vvines they bee well forward vpon and toward their perfection in the beginning of the second yeare or somewhat after The force and naturall heate of the dilicatest French vvines is gone after the first yeare is once past but in a noble vvine it fadeth and falleth away by little and little not before the second yeare be past The vvines of Gascoigne and Aniou growing in a hot and drie season draw very neere vnto the nature and temperature of the vvines whereof old vvriters haue spoken because the greatest part of them may be kept vnto the the third yeare The vvines of Orleance are at the best the second yeare and it stayeth with them to the end but when the second yeare endeth they begin to loose their goodnesse Now if the case stand thus in hot countries it is better to abstaine from old vvines than from new which are altogether fined for their old vvines do heate out of measure but the new vvines stir not vp any heate that may molest and trouble and yet they also be very hurtfull because they digest very hardly and beget many obstructions Wherefore in countries that are more hot new vvines may be drunke without any preiudice to the health being of a thin substance and wel fined because they haue but a weake heat But in these our countries which are cold and moist old wines may be vsed as also the new which are of a thinne substance well purged and fined Notwithstanding our countrie old vvines in as much as after some long time they loose their heat and thereby heat the lesse are not so hurtful vnto the head as the new or those which are of a middle age The iuice thereof newly pressed from the grape in as much as it is raw windie and of hard digestion if therewithall it do not ouerturne the stomach and prouoke flux of the bellie doth stay a long time in the stomach and
For certaine all greenenesse in vvine is a fault in those vvines vvherein it is but yet that is the worst of all the rest which happeneth vnto vvines sometimes good and commendable either by being kept too long or else by hauing beene ill kept or otherwise by some other occasion lesse dispraiseable and hurtfull vvithout comparison is that which happeneth in our French wines which by the weakenesse of the heat of the Sunne comming short of their sufficient concoction become greene from their first originall and growth as they which are greene by reason of the greene and vnripe grapes from whence they are pressed For such greenenesse as happeneth vnto vvines once good and commendable is hurtfull vnto all men and cannot be redressed thereby making such vvines vnfit to be employed about any other vse than either for medicine or sawces vvhereas that which is borne and ingrafted into such greene vvines if it be not suppressed and digested by naturall heat becommeth onely hurtfull to cold and moist constitutions and old folkes but not vnto strong Iustie and hot natures neither vnto them which are accustomed to trauaile and to auoid idlenesse You shall find many harsh rough and sowre vvines vvhich are also greene and in like manner you shall find some that are greene and yet not rough and course Such as are rough and greene through their vehement astringencie doe close shut vp drie and dull the throat tongue and other parts of the mouth whereas such as are simply greene doe not the like but coole them onely The rough and harsh vvines in as much as they are raw and crude and cannot be concocted and digested of their naturall heat that is but weake yet they close and bind the stomack and by such occasion stay the â—lux of the bellie Wines that are simply greene doe not the like if they be not harsh rough and astringent withall and they doe rather annoy the stomacke and all the membranous and neruous parts by reason of their cooling propertie and qualitie vvhich being situate in a thinne and subtile matter and therefore apt to pierce deepely into the parts and by their qualities prouoking and disquieting the substance of the said parts doth corrupt and dissolue the laudable temperature force and constitution of the said stomacke and of the said membranous and sinewie parts Whereupon it ensueth that such greene vvines doe for the most part cause crudities wringings and the flux of the belly manifold obstructions of the liuer and spleene besides the disease called the Hypochondriake melancholie Galen denieth that vvines which are hard and greene doe heat at all and that the sowre rough and harsh rellish doth actually consist in a meane matter participating both of the waterie and earthie elements but that the hard greene and sowre relish doth consist in an earthie and drie substance vvhich doth not manifestly participate of the water or any moisture Whereby it may manifestly appeare that neither the one nor the other relish hath any heat ruling in it but cold and that in the tart harsh and rough relish accompanied with moisture but in the sowre with drinesse But for as much as vvines are seldome consisting of one onely simple and pure relish and that all vvines of what tast or relish soeuer they be are in temperature hot and drie you must vnderstand that sowre and harsh vvines are accounted cold or else not hot not simply but by comparison because indeed they heat lesse than other vvines and that not quickly and so soone as they be drunk but in the end and aftersome continuance of time for otherwise the opinion of Galen were not to be receiued seeing that we obserue and see euerie day that all sorts of vvines of what tast or relish soeuer they be be they hard or harsh doe heat manifestly and make men drunke sooner or later if they be receiued into a hot and strong stomacke for their heat as a thing buried in crude and raw matter although it be a long time first and with great difficultie breaketh forth at the last manifesting it selfe in the end and bringing forth the fruits of his maturitie and this wee may finde in our French vvines which nourish maintaine recreate yea and make drunke the Husbandmen Vine-dressers and other persons of poore handicrafts vsing to drinke the same But let this suffice which hath beene said of the naturall tast and relish of vvines and now let vs search out the causes of the sowrenesse or tartnesse incident to good and commendable vvines Some thinke that vvines grow sowre through heat because that daintie weake and feeble vvines are changed and turne sowre in the Spring time and Summer and in Winter retaine their naturall qualities entire and sound This opinion is confirmed because that weake vvines being stirred and tumbled in forcible sort or carried farre or laid in cellars that are open vpon the South or Easterne quarter doe quickly become sowre And contrarily such as are not tossed to and fro or remoued but kept in cellars lying vpon the North doe not sowre at all as if it were by the cold that their vertues and good qualities were preserued and by the heat that they were changed and corrupted So as the like in all points doth befall vvines which are weake and waterish to that which happeneth vnto a burning candle and to small and weake sparkes of fire vvhich if you lay open in the hot Sunne or before any great and vehement flame you shall see them languish yea waxe darke and altogether to fade away and goe out It is then through heat that all the weakest vvines turne sowre and that by hauing their weake heat spent and ouercome by an outward and accidentall heat which is more strong causing the same to fade and for the most part vanish quite away For a weake nature cannot endure either any strong heat or vehement motion but fainting vnder them it becommeth wasted and spent and in fine perisheth But contrariwise wines which haue their heat strong and consist of such matter as is not easie or apt to be wasted and spent being remoued rolled transported or else laid open to the South Sunne or kept in any hot place doe not onely not sowre quickly and in a short time but rather become a great deale the more ripe and are made more readie and better to be drunke For that which befalleth through long continuance of time to strong mightie and noble vvines vvhich are shut vp and layd in cold caâ—es vnder the earth by the meanes power vertue and â—fficacie of their owne and naturall heat which concocteth digesteth and ripeneth by little and little their crude and raw matter the same is effected and wrought in a short time in vvines which are heated by art that is to say by stirring and rowling and by the heat of the Sunne or of some fine subtill fire vvhich doth concoct and digest the most crude and raw matter that they can be found to
brought thither out of other Countries and Regions The French wines offer themselues in the first ranke which growing in the grounds borders neere about Paris and the whole Isle of Fraunce and other places adioyning thereunto are amongst all others and aboue all others best agreeing with students Citizens of Townes and to be briefe with all such as liue a quiet idle and restfull life especially those which are made in well seasoned yeares or such as shew forth their seuerall qualities euerie one in his proper and due season For such wines doe not heat burne and dry the inward parts of the bodie as the wines doe which are brought vs from Gascoignie Spaine and other countries more hot vvhich by reason of excessiue heat and too great drinesse do burne the liuer and spleene in such as drink them Such wines doe not make a replete heauie or offended head with multitude of vapours as other vvines of Orleance doe In like manner such wines doe not load the bodie with superfluousnesse of serous excrements as doe the crude greenish wines which grow in these grounds in cold and moist yeares or which are brought vs hither from other cold Regions and Countries Such wines likewise ingender no obstructions neither doe they gather any quantitie of melancholike humour as doe the thicke and red vvines vvhich are sent vs by sea from Burdeaux These vvines vvhen they be through ripe they are of a very pâ—easant tast especially such as are yellow clarert and white which are of a hot dry temperature as other wines but not aboue the first degree or the beginning of the second on the contrarie the wines of Spaine Gascoigne and others such like are hot drie in the end of the third degree Wherfore these our French and natiue wines ought to be preferred before all strange forraine ones seeing they burne and heat the bowels inward parts ouer-much and that as wel for the vse of such as are in health as of those that being sicke are yet permitted their vvine Amongst these our French vvines some are white othersome are of a deepe yellow commonly called clarets or reddish vvines vvhich are the most wholesome of all so that they be not accompanied with any sowrenesse and harshnesse for rough harsh vvines and others which are greene if they become not ripe and mellow in time by the concocting of their cruditie greenenesse they stand for things not fit to be vsed of any but rude and rusticall fellowes vvhich liue by toyling their bodies vvith great labour and trauell The rest are all red more or lesse But of all other French vvines there is very small store of sad and light red coloured ones White claret vvines being bright cleare and through ripe or mellow in as much as they are of a subtle substance are easily concocted digested and distributed they prouoke vrine nourish the bodie but a little but they reioyce the spirit and are for the same cause taken longed after and desired of all Some of them are readie to be drunke the second or third moneth othersome not before the seuenth or eight moneth All of them begin to fade and loose their goodnesse in the beginning of the second yeare The red although they be bright and cleare are not of so subtile a substance as the former and therefore they nourish more and are more fit for such as liue hardly than for such as liue delicately and nicely and what although they cannot bee so easily concocted and digested nor so speedily distributed neither yet cause such aboundance of vrine as those which are yellow claret or white yet trauell often exercises and labour doth ouercome all these inconueniencies yea and whatsoeuer greater that such red wines may ingender and breed Amongst them those which participate and haue any sourenes or astriction become not mellow before the Sommer heat whereupon it followeth that the second yeare their crud and raw parts being concocted and digested they grow to bee more excellent than they were in the first The deepe red and vermillion coloured are for the most part harsh and rough and so the most vnpleasant and vnwholesome of all other for that they are woont to bee ill concocted and digested and slowly distributed as also to ingender many obstructions and beget a grosse and melancholicke bloud And for these causes are not conuenient but for such as labour and lead a very toilesome life in whose bodies they being once concocted and digested do nourish very much and make them more strong and lustie to go about and finish their worke and therewithall corroborate their stomacke Of white French wines those are most accounted of which are cleere and bright as rocke water of a subtile substance neither sweet nor greene such do nourish the bodie a great deale lesse than the yellow and claret wines but in recompence thereof they are more easily concocted digested distributed and carried more speedily and readily through all the veines True it is that they are accompanied with this inconuenience namely that they do more assault the head and therefore are to bee accounted greater enemies vnto gourie persons such as haue weake braines and are subiect to rheumes and diseases of the ionts and such likewise as haue weake ioinus than the red which are not yet come to their liuelyhood and maturitie which strengthen and corroborate the moâ—th of the stomacke by reason of some easie astringencie that is in them Such as in the first moneths become somewhat sweet if they bee kept any time in the end grow so concocted and ripâ— that hauing leâ—t their sweetnes they proue strong mightie and most excellent wines Greene wines whether they be white or red such as we oftentimes see in these countries especially in cold and moist yeares if they containe any strong heate as it were buried in their crud and raw parts if they be kept any time are woont to concoct themselues and attaine to such a degree of ripenesse as that they are â—ound good well contenting the taste and pleasant vpon the tongue such as those are which are not simply greene but together with their greenenesse doe taste somewhat rough and sower the other become spent faded decayed in the beginning of Sommer by reason of the said euaporating and wast of their weak feeble heaâ—e Wherefore you must drinke such vvines as are greenish and waterie not hauing any sharpenesse or sowrenesse in them in the beginning of Summer that so you may be sure that the great Summer heat shall not cause them to fade vtterly and quite fall away by the spending of their feeble heat caused through the vehemencie of the Summer heat but those which are greene rough and harsh hauing a strong heat couched and lying in grosse and thicke matter may be kept very securely vnto Autumne or Haruest time Such as are onely and simply greene are good and fit for seruants drinke and other such folke as liue hardly and
walkes or about houses for shade bearing a large head like the Cicamore and fully as round and as much extended and the leafe naturally of it selfe being broad and growing so thicke that hardly neither the Sunne nor the raine can possibly passe through the same neither is it tender but very apt to grow and may be remoued at any time or age as long as it is portable and meete to be wiâ—lded by the strength of any one man It is very true that the elme groweth easily and plentifully after that it hath taken with the ground And who so would for varietie sake mingle diuers sorts of trees of diuers natures as maple beech aspe and such other kinds of wood may do it but the moe okes and chesnut trees a man groweth the better he doth CHAP. VI. Of the seating and disposing of a wood for growing of high and great timber trees WHo soeuer hath a faire plot of eight or ten acres of ground and would make it shew faire and beautifull the first yeare and that by bringing the wood into some shape and commendable forme with hope of further delight pleasure from the same in time to come must for the first yere wall it about or else ditch it so well and plant it with hedges of quickset as that no cattell may possibly be able to enter thereinto And if the said plot should come to be ditched then I am freely contented to vtter my opinion at some other time concerning the fashion that they are to bee made after as also how when they are made they must be planted or set with quickset But presuppose that the said square plot is inclosed with a wall and that the said square hath foure sides that is to say two of length and two of bredth mine aduise is that all the sides of the said wal should be couered and clothed with greenenesse and with foure sorts of trees and six foot thicke and large seeing that nature reioiceth in varietie that so both the walls may be kept from being seene and there may be a walk betwixt two greenes The said couerts shall bee made according to the good liking of the Lord as for example one of the sides if it should so seeme good vnto him euen the South side with hasell and white hawthorne because these are the first leaues that doe first put forth in the spring time as those also wherin the nightingale doth make her neast another of the sides with barberrie trees which are beautifull and serue for very many vses spreading themselues in comely sort when they meet with a good ground The third side being that whereupon the Sunne beateth at his rising with â—ame osiers which may serue in husbandrie and therewithall also make a faire shew and the fourth side with yong peare-tree plants with some white thorne plants amongst as at the end of euerie foure foote square which are more greene than any other sorts of trees and they will bee of vse for to graft many faire grafts vpon and good store of great medlars The alleyes about the said wood must be twelue foot broad and vpon the edges of all the said alleyes as well on those that are toward the wall as on the other there must be planted elmes euery one foure fadome from another hauing their heads cut off and their bodies remaining a seuen foote high or thereabout to giue some grace and comlinesse vnto the said alleyes because that if a man should walke in the fairest place in the world if there be no sweetnesse to be found in it it proueth tedious and irkesome For this cause if it please the Lord of the farme to plant along the said alleyes certaine fruit trees as also wallnut-trees and those such as may sute euery season of the yeare he may do it Further it may seeme that all the said trees should be set from foure feet to foure feet and that by the leuell of a line euery way aswell to please the sight of the eie as also for that sometimes men are desirous to make alleyes within the wood and then if the draughts be straight it is more easie for to make them CHAP. VII Of the manner of planting trees in woods of high and tall growth IF you purpose to plant these trees well you must presently make dithes in manner of furrowes as you are woont to doe in the planting of vines wherein they must be planted to the end the earth may feed it selfe in aire and that it may battle and grow fat with the raine and snow which shall fall during Winter vpon them vnto the end of December or vnto the beginning of Ianuarie These trenches are not to be made aboue two foot deepe but they must be well handled in the bottome and that by laying the good earth vpon one side of the furrow and that which is lesse worth vpon the other and not to cast it abroad to the end that if the bottome should proue bad ground or otherwise to bee ouer deepe then there might be cast into the said furrow or trench some of that good earth which shal be on the side to the end that the roots of the tree may not busie themselues in searching a bad bottome in steed of stretching forth themselues in largenesse and you must so leaue the trenches and furrowes all Winter long for the receiuing of the rain water when it commeth and they must be so wide as that one may turne a yard euery way round within The said trees must be planted in December if it be possible and that the times be fauorable as when it freezeth not for great frosts are great enemies to the good proceeding of this worke You should rather cast to plant trees that are alreadie growne vp than to deale with the sowing of acornes or chesnuts because it requireth great care and industrie to make the said seed to grow and as concerning the seed it selfe that of the chesnut groweth sooner than that of the acorne And whenas you go about to sow them it must be done with leauing a foot distance betwixt one and another with the largest and in the end of great frosts because that during the said frosts the mowles do eate the chesnuts in the ground As concerning the planting of trees alreadie growne they must be taken vp with as many roots as they can possibly and after they be taken vp if there by any of their roots broken to cut the same and those which are not broken to cut their ends for to refresh them the length of three or foure fingers more or lesse as the roots may beare it You must make choice of a young plant that hath a liuely and cleane barke not rough and ouergrowne with mosse a good and handsome root a straight shanke and long without scares or frets and before you plant it it will bee good to cast into the furrow some good earth taken from the side of
the same trench to the thicknesse of a finger or two and vpon that to set the tree which you are to plant then couering the rootes with earth to sway vpon them gently with your hands that so there may not any aire stay about them and in filling vp the said furrowes you must prouide that they haue some sloping of earth both on the one side and on the other in maner of a gutter to the end that if it raine the raine and moisture may run away the more easily And to the end that the planted trees may grow the better you must lay their longest roots all along the trench on the one side and on the other and if by hap it fall out that there be long ones on euerie side so as that they cannot easily bee laied along in the furrow you must inlarge the furrow a little in the place where such roots require it to be enlarged to the end that the said roots may not touch the firme and fast earth but may bee buried and wrapt in soft earth that hath beene moued and stirred You must likewise cut off by the top of the shanke all the trees which you plant that is to say such as you plant to make high and tall tymber trees or which you mind to set along by the sides of the alleyes till you haue not left aboue the length of fiue or sixe foote to stand out of the earth to the end that they may the sooner beare a great quantitie of woode but the trees which you are purposed to plant for lowe and small wood must bee cut that there bee not left aboue a foote and a halfe for it will bee sufficient if they haue the length of foure inches out of the ground neither is there any danger in mingling chesnut trees with oakes except a man bee purposed to plant one wood with oakes onely and another with chesnut trees and as concerning the thickenesse of the said trees it needeth no deepe aduice for they may bee either of the thickenesse of a chesnut tennise-ball or some other such like but rather the care is that they bee well and newly taken vp and planted the same day they bee taken vp or at the farthest the day following Neither is it doubtfull but if they bee of much larger and bigger compasse as seuen or eight foot in length aboue the ground and twentie inches in compasse yet they will grow as well and as fast as the younger especially the â—lme aboue all other trees nor would I wish you if you can get them to chuse plants of any lesse bignesse And howbeit that some Woodwards are of opinion that the ash would bee planted but of a meane length because say they looke how mâ—ch it is aboue the earth so much it will shoot out in roote vnder the earth before it begin to prosper aboue yet it is but a false coniecture and if you intend to haue a faire and a large tree you must chuse the fairest and largest plants that you can get and then planting them in a conuenient and due time and in a fit earth they will in one Winter recouer that roote which shall preserue them from perishing euer after againe you must remember that as soone as you haue fixed your plants in the earth and couered them wel close which is a principal care you must then forthwith couer the top of the head all ouer and at least halfe a foote downeward with clay and mosse stâ—sly well tempered together and if the clay be apt to chap or riue then you shall mingle a few ashes therewith and so keepe it closse couered till the new branches spred forth and couer the head all ouer then when those branches are put out and are tender you shall plash and order them at your pleasure whether it be to make a tree for timber or for shade for speciall marke or for any other deuice whatsoeue The wood thus planted must bee twice laboured and tilled once in the end of Aprill and the second time at the end of Iulie after the fall of some great raine vpon thunder and if the caterpiller shall fall vpon it within the yeare it must bee clensed and freed from them CHAP. VIII Of the time when wood is to be tilled and husbanded IT is here to be noted that the chiefe principall furtherance and comfort that can be giuen to trees either reclaimed or wild is the labour bestowed vpon them in due conuenient time for the more they are husbanded tilled so much the more do they grow and prosper in greatnesse wherfore dressing and labour is necessary for young plants of all sorts of trees as well small as great and especially the foure first yeares they must be husbanded throughly and plied with two seuerall dressings euery yeare as vines are that is to say towards the middest of Aprill when they begin to put forth their buds and towards the end of Iune this must be done in moist rainie weather and not when drying winds or heat doth raigne because the ground then stirred would do nothing but turn to dust which would destroie the young springs and cause them die againe the said earth dressed at such time doth more easily conueigh the drienesse of the drie earth turned downe vnto the rootes of the trees which is very contrarie vnto them seeing that moisture is the thing that is required for the nourishment of plants and againe if the ground be moist it ioineth it selfe close vnto the roots and lendeth vnto them of his moisture The other reason is for that the earth being newly opened by its lying open giueth pasâ—age for the water raine or dew to enter more easily vnto the said roots The principall labour to be made about all trees is to root out all weeds seeing they are giuen to grow euery where in all grounds and which if they be suffered to grow vp sucke purloine and carrie away the sap and substance of the earth in such sort as that there is not left sufficient vertue and power to nourish the rootes of the late planted trees well and in good order and this is perceiued by the labour made in dressing of the vine and gardens the which the more they are husbanded and tilled so much the more fruite and young springs they put forth and become so much the more beautifull and faire So it will bee the chiefe worke after you haue planted trees to cause them to be so dressed in seasons that are moist and that twice at the least and that will cause them to grow greater of wood greater of boughes and to yeeld double profit And if extraordinarily the Sommer proue rainie so as that your plants become ouergrowne with much weeds it shall be left to the discretion of the husbandman if he see that his plants be not cleane to bestow a third dressing vpon them to the end that the weeds may not
birds which eate heart and paste must be purged at the least once euery moneth with two or three wormes out of the pigeon house euery time two daies after put into her water-pot the quantitie of a nut of sine sugar and when her voice faileth her you must put into the said water some licoras as namely so much as may giue some taste to the water and this will cleere her voice very exceedingly The foresaid purgation is very needfull when they are about to moute The cage must neuer be without earth or sand She must be sprinkled ouer with wine at the least twice a week to further her in her mouting and for the better preseruing of her life setting her afterward in the Sunne 〈◊〉 she be almost drie the like course must be taken when she is troubled with liâ—e and if you giue her any drie figs they will much reioice her CHAP. LXIX To purge birds that feed vpon Hempe-seed BIrds that eate Hempe-seede shal take for to purge them the seedes of melons husked and herbes as you shall thinke good namely Succorie Beets Lettuses Scariole and Mercury which is principally good for the Linnet but giue them what herbs you please for they are very good to 〈…〉 to purge them yea and though they haue no need to be purged yet you 〈◊〉 not cease continually to be giuing of them some giuing then furthermore amongst either earth or drie mortâ—â— in their cage to the end they may eate of it or dust themselues in it at their pleasure and conuenient time which is very wholesome for them and likewise you must giue them some Sugar as you haue beene taught before You shall perceiue when the bird would moute by the feathers in her cage and then you shall besprinkle her lightly with wine as wee haue already spoken before Some birds mout in the end of Iulie and others in the end of August Those which are taken in the nest begin to mout as soone as they be bred and their mouting continueth a moneth You shall besprinkle them with wine at the least twice a weeke to cause them to mout the sooner CHAP. LXX To know how long the birds liue IF any man desire to know how long these birds liue let him know that amongst Nightingales some liue three yeares some fiue and others vnto eight and sing vntill that time but from that time forward they are not any longer in perfection but decline by little and little It hath bin seene that Nightingales haue liued till they haue been fifteene yeres old and continued singing euery day lesâ—e or more so that it may seeme that they liue according to the good ordering which they haue or else according to their good complexion The Miskins being subiect to the gowt doe liue but a short time as three or foure yeares at the most The solitarie Sparrowes liue in good state and account for the space of fiue yeares many of them die of the subtile disease some of imposâ—umes others of gowts and some young ones of the falling sicknesse Finches liue tenne yea fifteene and twentie yeares more or lesse according vnto their complexion and they are alwaies in good plight singing vnto the last day of their life The Linnet is short-liued because she is subiect vnto the subtile disease some liue two yeares some three and some fiue according to their manner of ordering and gouerning The Siskins liue some fiue others eight yeares by reason of their good complexion and because they are not so subiect vnto diseases as other birds The Spinke liueth but a short time because they are subiect to blindnesâ—e some liue one yeare some two others till foure many of them die of the falling sicknesse because they haue beene set forth into the Sunne in the Summer time vvhereby the heat hath searched and penetrated into their braine The Calanders Corydales and Larkes liue alike long the one sort and the other as three or fiue yeares Some Calanders doe liue longer than the Corydales but she groweth melancholie being remoued out of one place into another The Canarie bird liueth long as fiue tenne and fifteene yeares yea there haue some beene seene to liue twentie yeares continuing alwaies good The Thraupis is of the continuance of six yeares or thereabout according as she is kept better or worse It is a bird that is not much regarded for her singing is but irkesome and tedious some take pleasure in it and some doe not CHAP. LXXI The manner of taking small birds as well those which sing as those which are for to eat as also all other sorts of small birds TO take birds with the voice of some leafe knife or such other like thing a man must stand in a bush shadowing himselfe with the leaues thereof and with a whistle make a noise or crie counterfeiting some bird that hath beene taken before or is then taken Some take a Sparrow being kept somewhat neere and held in a snare and make her crie pinching together her wings or legges and then the birds will flocke about her to aid her thinking that the Owle hath caught her and hauing set lime-twigges or lime-bushes vpon the branches of the trees the birds that shall come to succour her and lighting will be limed To take Spinkes as they are going that is to say in the place where many Spinkes are wont to passe you must enuiron their trees after they haue beene cut and planted in a plaine ground one distant from another some small distance as three foot or thereabout with leaues below as if it were a lodge and amongst them lay a coard made fast vnto a bough and carried vp on the other side with some prop this shall be held by a man placed a good way off and on the said bough shall be hanged and made fast two or three Spinkes then you must set the said trees verie choicely and thinne with lime-twigges and some distance off from thence two or three cages wherein there shall be some Spinkes for to call to such flocks as shall come flying that way which perceiuing those in the cages as also those which are hanged vpon the sticke will liâ—e themselues on the trees To take Pattridges with the Tonnell or Tombrell there must a man be placed behind a Cow or a Horse of wood or of oâ—â—er painted in such sort as that it may resemble the fashion of a Cow or a Horse and in the meane time hee shall ouer-cast the nets vpon the Partridges This kind of taking of Partridges is now adaies forbidden To take Partridges and Woodcocks in the night with fire you must light a match of old drie vvoollen clouts dipt in melted tallow wrapping them vp afterward together in forme of a torch as thicke as ones arme and of the length of a foot then you must astonish and amaze the Partridges in such sort as that they may cast themselues into the nets vvherewith
or marquots you must bow them wel at the foote to make them take roote and afterward cast downe the earth of the ridges both of the one side and the other that so it may fall vpon the said plants At Clublyes Touuerois and Auxerrois in planting of marquots but not hauing any hairie rootes they writhe them about very gentlie and vntill they crack and cleaue a little not suffering them to come together againe There is another manner of planting of Crossets and not the Marquots for his hairie root cannot endure and abide it which is called by the termes of planting en barrhe en fiche or as it is called in Aniou en godeau and it is by pricking downe on a row the said plants or else so as that two may stand right ouer against one that is alone as the manner is to doe with Willowes and afterward to couer them ouer and to pile and beate them as hath been said Furthermore to the end that the new plant may take roote verie speedily it wil be good to put to the roote thereof acornes and fetches bruised and ground together somewhat grosse or else Beane straw or dung that is old and made long since or the chaffe of Wheate which is fittest of all if there may be found any that hath lien rotting somewhere in standing water for the space of one yeare or more or fat earth if in case that the ground where you plant your Vine bee but a leane earth but if it bee a fat soile it will be fit to put therin the drosse of the pressing of grapes mixt with dung made of the drosse of white grapes if the plant bee of a blacke Vine or of blacke grapes if the plant be of a white Vine Some doe poure Vrin thereupon to worke the feat withall and others the lees of Wine It is true that some hold it for cerâ—aine that Vrin is altogether contrarie to the Vine plant and that is causeth the same to looke pale and white and in succession of time to kil the stalke whether it be Crosset or a Marquot You must not mingle if it be possible any other plants amongst the Vines howsoeuer some doe sow amongst them Beanes Gourds and Cucumberâ— because that whatsoeuer is sowen amongst the Vines doth steale away from them their nourishment and becommeth wonderfull harmefull and iniurious aboue all other things the Vine hateth the Colworâ— as we haue alreadie said in the second Booke Againe Vines must not be planted of diuers plants because all vines do not grow at one time neither are they all of one nature for some beare early fruits and some late fruits Likewise the fruits themselues doe differ one from another for some are redde some blacke some white some sweete some eager and sowre some durable and other some not durable Wine is better old than new some is drunke presently after it is made One delighteth in one manner of dressing and another in another wherefore you must not mingle diuers plants together for there is nothing that so much spoyleth Vines as when the grapes that are early ripe are gathered with the late ripe ones and the white with the blacke because they are of contrarie natures And if any man be desirous to haue manie sorts then hee must plant them apart one from the other that so he may order them inrich cut and gather them in their nature and season that is to say the more forward and fruitfull first and the backward and late ones last or which is better if a man desire to haue diuers sorts of yong plants to the end that if one misse he may be in possibilitie to haue others that will speed in stead of mingling diuers plants together in the same ground hee must haue so many inclosures or quarters for Vines to the end they may by them bee euerie one separated and distinguished from another as hee will haue planâ—s and diuersities of plants CHAP. VII In what ground with what manner of inriching and at what time of the yeare the young vine ought chiefely to bee planted TO plant a new vineyard of a French vine it behoueth the Lord of the farme if he himselfe would see the fruit of his first labours to haue care and consideration of the ground and of the young vineyard which he meaneth to replenish with young plants as wee haue said for he may be well assured that in a sturdie stiffe iuicie and fat ground the vine will beare much fruit and requireth lesse to be inriched and helped saue that it may after some two of three yeares stand in need to haue some little supplie of fresh and new earth wherein pulse haue lately growne or else some little reliefe at the foot according to the time and nature of the countrie In a grauellie and flintie ground as suppose it might be in Vaugirard and Venues where vines yeeld not so much increase the earth must be the ofter tilled dressed and dunged for the purpose but such manuring must bee with neats dung and not with the dung of horse swine sheepe or leistals with all which all manner of ground whatsoeuer is made worse rather than amended besides that such amends doth impaire the taste of wine and maketh the vine sooner to grow old and out of date because that the ouermuch trust that the workeman putteth in the heat of these doth make him negligent euen as it fareth with them which put vnquencht lime to the feet of plants to make them beare the timelier fruit as also for to make them the sooner ripe seeing also that the workemen giuen to follow these courses do not vouchsafe them the labour of digging about the feet neither yet to turne vp and dig their vineyards diuers times as the season shall fit and require louing rather to put their masters to the charges of dung young plants and props then that they would in a rainy and fit time take paines and dig them oft yea rather spending the time of their labouring in â—auerning or else in wrangling with some of their neerest and deerest kinsfolkes and that oftentimes for noâ—hing notwithstanding that the thing which is the principal and chiefest cause of the bringing forth of wine as well commendable for goodnesse as abounding in store is by bestowing as many dressings vpon the vine as can be deuised or any way affoorded Wherefore you may vndertake the planting of the French vine in the increase of the Moone when it is foure or fiue daies old and that from about the beginning of December or the middest of December vntill the next frosts that follow and then also according to their fiercenesse and sharpnesse which if it fall out to be great you shall â—urcease and giue ouer your worke for to goe about to breake the ground and lay open the earth when it is taken and hardened by the frost is but so much labour for you and so much losse vnto the